Leigh Goodmark (she/hers) is the Marjorie Cook Professor of Law and director of the Clinical Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she teaches the Gender, Prison, and Trauma Clinic. She is the author of Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism (University of California Press 2023); Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach to Intimate Partner Violence (University of California Press 2018) and A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System (New York University 2012), which was named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2012. She is the co-editor of The Criminalization of Violence Against Women: Comparative Perspectives (Oxford 2023) and Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence: Lessons from Efforts Worldwide (Oxford 2015). Professor Goodmark’s work on intimate partner violence has appeared in numerous journals, law reviews, and publications, including Violence Against Women, The New York Times, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the Harvard Journal on Gender and the Law, and the Yale Journal on Law and Feminism. From 2003 to 2014, Professor Goodmark was on the faculty at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she served as director of clinical education and co-director of the Center on Applied Feminism. From 2000 to 2003, Professor Goodmark was the director of the Children and Domestic Violence Project at the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law. Before joining the Center on Children and the Law, Professor Goodmark represented clients in the District of Columbia in custody, visitation, child support, restraining order, and other civil matters. Professor Goodmark is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law School.

Books

Editor, The Criminalization of Violence Against Women: Comparative Perspectives (with Heather Douglas, Kate Fitz-Gibbon, and Sandra Walklate, 2023). Abstract

Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism (2023). Abstract

Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach to Intimate Partner Violence (2018). Abstract

Editor, Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence: Lessons from Efforts Worldwide (2015) (with Rashmi Goel). Abstract

A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System (2012). Abstract

Bringing the Greenbook to Life: A Resource Guide for Communities (2008) (with Ann Rosewater). Abstract

Reasonable Efforts Checklist for Dependency Cases Involving Domestic Violence (2008). Abstract

Steps Toward Safety: Improving Systemic and Community Responses for Families Experienceing Domestic Violence (2007) (with Ann Rosewater). Abstract

Promoting Community Child Protection: A Legislative Agenda (2002). Abstract

Keeping Kids Out of the System: Creative Legal Practice as a Community Child Protection Strategy (2001). Abstract

Book Chapters

United States v. Maddesyn George: The Consequences of Criminalization for Native Women in the United States, in The Criminalization of Violence Against Women: Comparative Perspectives (Heather Douglas, Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Leigh Goodmark & Sandra Walklate, 2023).

The Anti-Rape and Battered Women's Movements of the 1970s and 80s, in The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States (Deborah L. Brake, Martha Chamallas & Verna Williams eds., 2021).

Legal System Reform, in Transgender Intimate Partner Violence: A Comprehensive Introduction (Adam M. Messinger & Xavier L. Guadalupe-Diaz eds., 2020).

Responsive Alternatives to the Criminal System in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence, in Restorative and Responsive Human Services (Gale Burford, John Braithwaite, and Valerie Braithwaite eds., 2019).

Politics, Safety, and Officer-Involved Intimate Partner Violence, in The Politicization of Safety: Critical Perspectives on Domestic Violence Responses 227 (Jane K. Stoever ed., 2019).

The Unintended Consequences of Domestic Violence Criminalization: Reassessing a Governance Feminist Success Story, in Governance Feminism: Notes from the Field 124 (Janet Halley et al. eds., 2019).

Innovative Criminal Justice Responses to Intimate Partner Violence, in Sourcebook on Violence Against Women (Claire M. Renzetti et al. eds., 3d ed. 2018).

Law and Justice as a Tertiary Prevention Strategy, in Preventing Intimate Partner Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Claire M. Renzetti et al. eds., 2017).

Articles

Book Review, Recovering Identity: Criminalized Women's Fight for Dignity and Freedom, by Cesraéa Rumpf, Gender & Society (2024), https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432241230936.

Why Centering the Family Court System Won't Decrease Criminalization of Intimate Partner Violence--And Why That's a Problem, 30 Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law 56 (2023).

Discretion and Credibility, Dignity and Mercy: The Case of PT, a Criminalized Survivor, 38 Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society 53 (2023) (with Lila Meadows).

Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism, 17 Law Journal for Social Justice 54 (2023).

Intimate Partner Violence Training and Readiness to Respond Among Students, Staff, and Faculty in Three Institutions in the United States, Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2022) (with others). DOI: 10.1177/08862605221099948

Assessing the Impact of the Violence Against Women Act, 5 Annual Review of Criminology 115 (2022).

Gender-Based Violence, Law Reform, and the Criminalization of Survivors of Violence, 10 International Journal of Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 13 (2021). Abstract

Beyond the Victim-Offender Binary: Legal and Anti-Violence Intervention Considerations with Women Who Have Used Force in the U.S. and Australia, Affilia, December 2021 (with others). Abstract

Surveillance and Entanglement: How Mandatory Sex Offender Registration Impacts Criminalised Survivors of Human Trafficking, Anti-Trafficking Review, no. 14 (2020), at 124 (with Kate Mogulescu).

Domestic Violence Mandatory Arrest Policies and Arrests for Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Intimate Partner Violence After Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage in the United States, 33 Criminal Justice Studies 231 (2020) (with Alesha Durfee).

Reimagining VAWA: Why Criminalization Is a Failed Policy and What a Non-Carceral VAWA Could Look Like, Violence Against Women (2020). Abstract

"You Do Not Think of Me as a Human Being": Race and Gender Inequities Intersect to Discourage Police Reporting of Violence Against Women, 96 Journal of Urban Health 772 (2019) (with others).

Gender, Protection Orders, and Intimate Partner Violence in Later Life: A Study of Protective Order Filings in Arizona, Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2019) (with Alesha Durfee).

The Impact of Prosecutorial Misconduct, Overreach, and Misuse of Discretion on Gender Violence Victims, 123 Dick. L. Rev. 627 (2019). Abstract

Restorative Justice as Feminist Practice, 1 International Journal of Restorative Justice 372 (2018).

Should Domestic Violence Be Decriminalized?, 40 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 53 (2017). Abstract

Freddie Gray, Law Enforcement, and Intimate Partner Violence, 16 University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class 173 (2016). Abstract

Hands Up at Home: Militarized Masculinity and Police Officers Who Commit Intimate Partner Abuse, 2015 Brigham Young University Law Review 1183. Abstract

"Law and Justice Are not Always the Same": Creating Community-Based Justice Forums for People Subjected to Intimate Partner Abuse, 42 Florida State University Law Review 707 (2015). Abstract

CONVERGEing Around the Study of Gender Violence: The Gender Violence Clinic at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, 5 U. Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review 661 (2015). Abstract

Stalled at 20: VAWA, the Criminal Justice System, and the Possibilities of Restorative Justice, CUNY Law Review, Dec. 16, 2014. Abstract

Transgender People, Intimate Partner Abuse, and the Legal System, 48 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Review 51 (2013). Abstract

Clinical Cognitive Dissonance: The Values and Goals of Domestic Violence Clinics, the Legal System, and the Students Caught in the Middle, 20 Journal of Law & Policy 301 (2012). Abstract

Mothers, Domestic Violence, and Child Protection: An American Legal Perspective, 16 Violence Against Women 524 (2010). Abstract

An Experiment in Participation, 16 The Law Teacher 12 (2009). Abstract

Autonomy Feminism: An Anti-Essentialist Critique of Mandatory Interventions in Domestic Violence Cases, 37 Florida State University Law Review 1 (2009). Abstract

Reframing Domestic Violence Law and Policy: An Anti-Essentialist Proposal, 31 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 39 (2009). Abstract

When Is a Battered Woman not a Battered Woman? When She Fights Back, 20 Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 75 (2008). Abstract

Going Underground: The Ethics of Advising a Battered Woman Fleeing an Abusive Relationship, 75 UMKC Law Review 999 (2007). Abstract

The Punishment of Dixie Shanahan: Is There Justice for Battered Women Who Kill?, 55 University of Kansas Law Review 269 (2007). Abstract

Telling Stories, Saving Lives: The Battered Mothers' Testimony Project, Women's Narratives, and Court Reform, 37 Arizona State Law Journal 709 (2005). Abstract

Achieving Batterer Accountability in the Child Protection System, 93 Kentucky Law Journal 613 (2004-2005). Abstract

Law Is the Answer? Do We Know that for Sure?: Questioning the Efficacy of Legal Interventions for Battered Women, 23 Saint Louis University Public Law Review 7 (2004). Abstract

Deconstructing Teresa O'Brien: A Role Play for Domestic Violence, 23 Saint Louis University Public Law Review 253 (2004) (with Catherine F. Klein). Abstract

Parenting in the Face of Prejudice: The Need for Representation for Parents with Mental Illness, 36 Clearinghouse Review 295 (2002). Abstract

Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Potential for Gender Bias, 39 Judges' Journal 21 (2000). Abstract

Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Potential for Gender Bias, Judges' Journal, Spring 2000, at 21.

From Property to Personhood: What the Legal System Should Do for Children in Family Violence Cases, 102 West Virginia Law Review 237 (1999). Abstract

Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well With Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs, 4 Georgetown Journal on Fighting Poverty 243 (1997). Abstract

• Family Law
• Gender, Prison and Trauma Clinic
• Law and Social Change Seminar