People, Policy and Practice in Tumultuous Times: What is next for women?

• In Event: Roundtable: People, Policy and Practice in Tumultuous Times: What Is Next for Women?

Abstract

Bringing scholarship, law and activism together in this roundtable we will think about the development of women’s justice initiatives. What are the progressive measures that are being used well to benefit women, and how can their use be supported? Does co-optation of good practice sometimes result in developments which do not benefit women? Is there a risk that our research on non-carceral alternatives may be used in ways we do not intend? For example, 'trauma informed care' can be co-opted into spaces which will always cause trauma. Non-carceral alternatives can impose strenuous requirements on women, with many more opportunities for them to be breached, the consequence of which is that women still end up incarcerated with 'failed' community penalties on their records. As researchers, teachers, activists, lawyers, can we mitigate those risks?   How do we scrutinise our choice of topics, methodologies, analytical approaches and avenues of dissemination, to guard against contributing to reformist rather than abolitionist reforms? What can we learn from each other in this space?

Authors

• Shona Minson, University of Oxford

• Chez Rumpf, University of Illinois Chicago

• Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, Michigan State University

• Jessica Bird, University of Illinois Chicago

• Jill A. McCorkel, Villanova University

• Veronica L. Horowitz, University at Buffalo, SUNY