Penal Abolition, Naiveté, and the Ideologies of “Crime” and “Criminology”

• In Event: Penal Abolition – Building Ideas and Practices

Abstract

Penal Abolition is not based on naive or romantic perceptions of human beings, dislike for what is called "public safety," or a pretense that human beings in community are not accountable to each other. Penal abolitionists are in search of solutions for the very real conflicts of human relationships and have no magic bullet solutions for the unimaginably complex matters that penality and the so-called "Criminal Justice System" attempt to address. Penal abolitionists want to begin by being honest about the challenges of communal living and the penal project’s immense inhumanity, racism, and operational failures which advise us to leave it in the dust-bowls of historicity. Departing from there, the real work begins.

Author

• Michael J. Coyle, California State University, Chico