Justine van der Leun discusses her new book, 'Unreasonable Women,' on Everyday Injustice. Book explores the systemic criminalization of domestic violence and sexual abuse survivors within the legal system, highlighting three women's extraordinary survival stories. davisvanguard.org/2026/06/crim...

Podcast Exposes Justice System's Criminalization of Abuse Survivors - Davis Vanguard

Journalist and author Justine van der Leun's new book, "Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment and Extraordinary Survival," examines the criminal legal system's tendency to crimin...

davisvanguard.org

Required reading for anyone who cares about women and justice, UNREASONABLE WOMEN aims a powerful spotlight on our country’s continued failure to protect its most vulnerable. @eccobooks.bsky.social

"That was often the way it went: The women took it, and took it, and then, one day, they didn’t. They resisted." This month's Flytrap book excerpt is from Unreasonable Women by @justinevdl.bsky.social, who reports on her work surveying over 1,000 women criminalized for surviving assault and abuse.

Documenting Criminalized Survival

Justine van der Leun introduces her work to surface the lived experiences of over 1,000 women imprisoned for surviving assault and abuse.

theflytrapmedia.com

Check out an excerpt of Justine van der Leun's @justinevdl.bsky.social new book, Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival, at @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2119...

They Fought Their Abusers. They Were Imprisoned for It.

TC Brooks served decades before her sentence was commuted. Justine van der Leun’s new book, Unreasonable Women, tells her story and those of other criminalized survivors.

newrepublic.com

The majority of incarcerated women were abused before they were pipelined into prison—and at the very least, one-third of those incarcerated for murder or manslaughter were in fact acting to protect themselves. From @justinevdl.bsky.social:

What Do Most Female Prisoners Have in Common? They Are Actually Victims.

When I first began reporting on incarcerated women, I was fascinated by studies that showed that showed that upwards of 70 percent of women in jails and prisons were subjected to intimate partner…

msmagazine.com

msmagazine.com/2026/06/08/w...

What Do Most Female Prisoners Have in Common? They Are Actually Victims.

When I first began reporting on incarcerated women, I was fascinated by studies that showed that showed that upwards of 70 percent of women in jails and prisons were subjected to intimate partner viol...

msmagazine.com

And more from Dolores Huerta: "I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor — of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me, and other women, as property, or things to control."

March 18, 2026

Today, civil rights leader Dolores Huerta issued the following statement:

medium.com

Sarah Weinman@sarahweinman.com · 5mo ago

Just devastating. Absolutely devastating. And historical investigations matter, because what's hidden today -- or in plain sight but willfully ignored -- will be reckoned with in the future.

Strongly concur, and here's where to pre-order:

Unreasonable Women

A groundbreaking account of how the legal system punishes those it purports to protect, told through the stories of three unforgettable womenWhen award-winni...

harpercollins.com

Brian Goldstone@brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 5mo ago

@justinevdl.bsky.social just joined Bluesky. Give her a follow and preorder UNREASONABLE WOMEN immediately. An extraordinary book everyone will be talking about this year.

The book will be out in June, but you can preorder it here:

Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival

Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival

bookshop.org

What a welcome...

Brian Goldstone@brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 5mo ago

@justinevdl.bsky.social just joined Bluesky. Give her a follow and preorder UNREASONABLE WOMEN immediately. An extraordinary book everyone will be talking about this year.

Just finished reading an advance copy of Justine van der Leun's UNREASONABLE WOMEN, the result of a years-long investigation into criminalized survival: women who defend themselves against abuse and are punished for it. I was blown away. A wrenching and essential book.