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The popular press dubbed him "the subway vigilante": Bernhard Goetz, who on December 22, 1984, shot four black youths on a New York subway train when one of them asked for five dollars. Goetz claimed to have fired in self-defense, out of fear that the young men were about to rob him.

In More Than Victims, Donald Downs offers a sympathetic and powerful analysis of the problems attending the use of battered-woman syndrome as a legal defense, ultimately revealing how the syndrome's logic actually harms those it is trying to protect. A persuasive account of how constitutional freedom and individual justice can be threatened by current legal standards, this thorough yet accessible work presents a dramatic rethinking of the criminal justice system.

"More Than Victims is a powerful step in the right direction. Women as well as men need to be protected from violence, and women, in particular, require better understanding of their sometimes oppressive situations. But they also need to be able to participate fully in the discourse of politics and citizenship. Downs offers a solution that helps to make both possible."—Teresa Godwin Phelps, Review of Politics

"Downs has written an important book on a subject that deserves more of our attention."— Susan Mezey, Law and Politics Book Review

"Comprehensive and compelling. [Downs] demonstrates a masterful grasp of the complex legal and philosophical issues implicated in domestic violence cases."—Annette DeMichele, New York Law Journal