diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4c85351..a493e71 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+## Unreleased
+
+- Make the validator configurable via an options map. You can use it to enable [inline dereferencing][inline-deref] by passing `{:dereferencing :inline}` as the second parameter to `validator`/`json-validator`.
+
+[inline-deref]: (http://json-schema.org/latest/json-schema-core.html#anchor30).
+
 ## 0.3.0 (7.8.2016)
 
 - `validator` and `json-validator` now take a `JsonSchemaFactory` as an optional argument. This allows e.g. pre-loading schema definitions.
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index f1083d4..1a9dc66 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-(defproject metosin/scjsv "0.3.0"
+(defproject metosin/scjsv "0.4.0-SNAPSHOT"
   :description "Simple JSON-Schema validator for Clojure"
   :url "https://github.com/metosin/scjsv"
   :license {:name "Eclipse Public License"
diff --git a/src/scjsv/core.clj b/src/scjsv/core.clj
index 89402a2..ed69add 100644
--- a/src/scjsv/core.clj
+++ b/src/scjsv/core.clj
@@ -1,21 +1,34 @@
 (ns scjsv.core
   (:require [cheshire.core :as c])
-  (:import [com.fasterxml.jackson.databind ObjectMapper JsonNode]
-           [com.github.fge.jsonschema.main JsonSchemaFactory]
+  (:import [com.fasterxml.jackson.databind JsonNode]
            [com.github.fge.jackson JsonLoader]
+           [com.github.fge.jsonschema.main JsonSchemaFactory]
+           [com.github.fge.jsonschema.core.load Dereferencing]
+           [com.github.fge.jsonschema.core.load.configuration LoadingConfiguration]
            [com.github.fge.jsonschema.core.report ListProcessingReport ProcessingMessage]
            [com.github.fge.jsonschema.main JsonSchema]))
 
+(defn- build-factory
+  "Creates a JsonSchemaFactory based on the options map."
+  [{:keys [dereferencing] :or {dereferencing :canonical}}]
+  (let [dereferencing-mode (case dereferencing
+                             :inline (Dereferencing/INLINE)
+                             :canonical (Dereferencing/CANONICAL))
+        loading-config (-> (LoadingConfiguration/newBuilder)
+                           (.dereferencing dereferencing-mode)
+                           (.freeze))]
+    (-> (JsonSchemaFactory/newBuilder)
+        (.setLoadingConfiguration loading-config)
+        (.freeze))))
+
 (defn- ->json-schema
   "Creates a JSONSchema instance either from a JSON string or a Clojure Map."
-  [schema factory]
+  [schema ^JsonSchemaFactory factory]
   (let [schema-string (if (string? schema)
                         schema
                         (c/generate-string schema))
-        mapper (ObjectMapper.)
-        schema-object (.readTree ^ObjectMapper mapper ^String schema-string)
-        json-schema (.getJsonSchema ^JsonSchemaFactory factory ^JsonNode schema-object)]
-    json-schema))
+        schema-object (JsonLoader/fromString schema-string)]
+    (.getJsonSchema factory schema-object)))
 
 (defn- validate
   "Validates (f data) against a given JSON Schema."
@@ -28,23 +41,43 @@
     (if (seq errors)
       (map ->clj errors))))
 
+(defn- ->factory
+  "Converts value to a JsonSchemaFactory if it isn't one."
+  [value]
+  (cond
+    (instance? JsonSchemaFactory value) value
+    (map? value) (build-factory value)
+    :else (throw (Exception. (str "Don't know how to convert " (pr-str value)
+                                  " into a JsonSchemaFactory.")))))
+
 ;;
 ;; Public API
 ;;
 
 (defn json-validator
   "Returns a JSON string validator (a single arity fn).
-  Schema can be given either as a JSON String or a Clojure Map."
+  Schema can be given either as a JSON String or a Clojure Map.
+
+  To configure the validator, you can pass a JsonSchemaFactory instance or a
+  options map as the second parameter. See scjsv.core/validator docstring for
+  the options."
   ([schema]
-   (json-validator schema (JsonSchemaFactory/byDefault)))
+   (json-validator schema (build-factory {})))
   ([schema json-schema-factory]
-   (partial validate (->json-schema schema json-schema-factory))))
+   (partial validate (->json-schema schema (->factory json-schema-factory)))))
 
 (defn validator
   "Returns a Clojure data structure validator (a single arity fn).
-  Schema can be given either as a JSON String or a Clojure Map."
+  Schema can be given either as a JSON String or a Clojure Map.
+
+  To configure the validator, you can pass a JsonSchemaFactory instance or an
+  options map as the second parameter. The options map can have the following
+  keys:
+
+  :dereferencing -- Which dereferencing mode to use. Either :canonical (default)
+                    or :inline."
   ([schema]
-   (validator schema (JsonSchemaFactory/byDefault)))
+   (validator schema (build-factory {})))
   ([schema json-schema-factory]
-   (comp (partial validate (->json-schema schema json-schema-factory))
+   (comp (partial validate (->json-schema schema (->factory json-schema-factory)))
          c/generate-string)))
diff --git a/test/scjsv/core_test.clj b/test/scjsv/core_test.clj
index 502b970..c5a9183 100644
--- a/test/scjsv/core_test.clj
+++ b/test/scjsv/core_test.clj
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
     (validate-with-explicit-factory valid) => nil
     (validate-with-explicit-factory invalid) =not=> nil
 
-    (fact "validation errors are lovey clojure maps"
+    (fact "validation errors are lovely clojure maps"
       (validate invalid)
       => [{:domain "validation"
            :instance {:pointer "/shipping_address"}
@@ -49,3 +49,11 @@
            :required ["city" "state" "street_address"]
            :schema {:loadingURI "#"
                     :pointer "/definitions/address"}}])))
+
+(fact "Validating a schema that refers to itself"
+  (let [schema (slurp (io/resource "scjsv/with_id.json"))
+        default-validate (v/validator schema)
+        inline-validate (v/validator schema {:dereferencing :inline})
+        valid {:foo "foo"}]
+    (default-validate valid) =not=> nil
+    (inline-validate valid) => nil))
diff --git a/test/scjsv/with_id.json b/test/scjsv/with_id.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5dec959
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/scjsv/with_id.json
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+{
+    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#",
+    "id": "resource:/does/not/exist",
+    "properties": {
+        "foo": {
+            "$ref": "#/definitions/foo"
+        }
+    },
+    "definitions": {
+        "foo": {
+            "enum": ["foo"]
+        }
+    }
+}