How Do We Get There From Here? Toward an Anti-Carceral Future in the Movement to End Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

In this conceptual paper, I argue that the anti-gender-based violence sector must make anti-carceral responses mainstream if we are truly committed to the healing, safety, and well-being of survivors. I trace the history of anti-violence social movements and articulate the harms of carceral responses, while also reflecting on my personal journey as a survivor, practitioner, and researcher. I offer a framework to combat carceral logics by encouraging readers to think and act “anti-carcerally” in everyday life. By making micro anti-carceral changes at the individual- or organizational-level, practitioners, researchers, professors, funders, and community members can make a non-carceral future possible.

Keywords

sexual assault domestic violence abolition social movements

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