Penal abolitionism

• In Event: Routledge Handbook on European Penology - I. Scientific developments

Abstract

Penal abolitionism refers to a criminological perspective that dismisses penal definitions and punitive responses to criminalised problems, and proposes their replacement by dispute settlement, redress, and social justice. This paper focuses on the last stages of this movement: the zemiological perspective, that focuses on reducing ‘social harm’; and the new wave of activist abolitionism focusing on racial violence and gendered stereotyping by the police and within the prison systems.

Author

• René van Swaaningen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands