Your cart
There are no more items in your cart
For a world without prisons and without sexist violence.
The Black Lives Matter movement has strengthened demands for police disarmament and the abolition of repressive criminal justice systems. These systems are characterized by sexist, racist, and classist structures around the world, particularly in the United States. The primary victims of these state police practices and incarcerations are Black people and women of color.
However, the debate over abolitionism is complex. Sections of the women's movement call for tougher penalties and more decisive state action against perpetrators of sexual violence. The authors argue that radical feminism must recognize that attempting to fight violence with violence ultimately only exacerbates it.
The authors, both scholars and longtime activists, bring their analytical expertise and experience to the debate. Their compelling case emphasizes that feminism and abolitionism cannot be considered separately. They emphasize that gender-based violence, state violence, domestic violence, and militarism can only be addressed in the long term through local and global organizing.
About the authors:
Angela Y. Davis is a professor emerita at the University of California as well as a preeminent political activist, author, and speaker. She has been an icon of the movement for the rights of political prisoners in the United States since the 1970s and remains passionately committed to Black liberation. In doing so, she fights against racial, gender, and class discrimination, as well as the prison complex in the United States.
Beth E. Richie chairs the Department of Criminology, Law and Justice and is a professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Erica R. Meiners is professor of education and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Northeastern Illinois University.
Gina Dent is Professor of Feminist Studies and Legal Studies and is devoted to research in African Diaspora literature and culture and postcolonial theory.
