View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt Running head: TOWARDS ANTI-CARCERAL SOCIAL WORK Defund the Police: Moving Towards an Anti-Carceral Social Work Leah A. Jacobs, Ph.D., M.S.W. University of Pittsburgh Mimi E. Kim, Ph.D., M.S.W. California State University, Long Beach Darren L. Whitfield, Ph.D., M.S.W. University of Pittsburgh Rachel E. Gartner, Ph.D., M.S.W. University of Pittsburgh Meg Panichelli, Ph.D., M.S.W. West Chester University Shanna K. Kattari, Ph.D., M.Ed. University of Michigan Margaret Mary Downey, Ph.D., M.S.W. Tulane University Shanté Stuart McQueen, Ph.D., M.Ed. Portland State University Sarah E. Mountz, Ph.D., M.S.W. University at Albany Corresponding author: Leah A. Jacobs, University of Pittsburgh, 2117 Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Email:
[email protected]. Author’s Note The authors would like to thank those who have developed and implement the anti-carceral interventions described in this paper. We have no known conflicts of interest. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. TOWARDS ANTI-CARCERAL SOCIAL WORK Abstract This paper addresses social work’s place in the movement to “defund the police.” We argue that social work’s collaboration with police and use of policing constitutes carceral social work. In defining carceral social work, we specify the ways in which coercive and punitive practices are used to manage Black, Indigenous, other people of color and poor communities across four social work arenas – gender-based violence, child welfare, schools, and health and mental health.