An Abolitionist Theory on Crime: Ending the Abusive Relationships with Racist-Imperialist-Patriarchal [R.I.P.] Systems of Punishment

• In Event: Penal Abolition: Session 2 of 3

Abstract

In Black Feminist Hauntology: Rememory the Ghosts of Abolition? (2015) I introduced a framework that likened characteristics of the criminal justice system to characteristics we use to identify abusive interpersonal relationships. In this paper I develop that analysis into an Abolitionist Theory on Crime, if such a thing can exist. Building this theory through Black Feminist Hauntology (a study of time and events that is not linear) highlights the criminal justice system as the current abusive force preceded by 500 years of abusive forces entangled in militarized, involuntary relationships with their captive victims. As these abusive relationships are all rooted in White supremacy, heteronormativity and imperial conquest I introduce Racist-Imperialist-Patriarchy [R.I.P.] - a term describing the intersecting systems of conquest that garner and produce the political, economic and cultural powers needed to define crime and enforce criminalization, while reminding the reader of the implicit mortality we address as we discuss these issues. I reference Black and First Nations murder-victims of policing and State-sanctioned violence to illustrate how an abolitionist theory on crime applies to our understandings of structural, institutionalized and criminal justice violence. I conclude that penal abolitionism requires anti-R.I.P. interpretations of the violence and institutions we seek to abolish.

Author

• Viviane Saleh-Hanna, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth