ABOLITION Which Are to Be Abolished (Bianchi and Van Swaaningen, 1986)
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A ABOLITION which are to be abolished (Bianchi and van Swaaningen, 1986). Abolitionists question the ethical calibre Definition of a state that intentionally and systemati- In criminology and criminal justice, the term cally inflicts pain upon other people. They ‘abolition’ currently refers to the attempt to point out that, because generally accepted do away with punitive responses to criminal- goals of general and special prevention can- ized problems. It is the first step in the aboli- not be supported with empirical data, the tionist strategy, followed by a plea for dispute credibility of the whole penal rationale is at settlement, redress and social justice. In more stake. Depenalization (pushing back the general terms it refers to the abolition of state punitive character of social reactions) and (supported) institutions which are no longer decriminalization (against the labelling of felt to be legitimate. Historically, the term has social problems as crimes) are the central been used in the fight against slavery, torture, strategies of abolition. Stan Cohen (1988) has prostitution, capital punishment and prison. identified five other ‘destructuring moves’ which are part of the politics of abolition: decarceration (away from prison), diversion Distinctive Features (away from the institution), decategorization Though the literal meaning of the verb ‘to (away from offender typologies), delegaliza- abolish’ suggests differently, penal abolition tion (away from the state) and deprofession- should not be interpreted in absolute terms. alization (away from the expert). In a next, Abolitionists do not argue that the police positive or reconstructive phase, a distinc- or courts should be abolished. The point is tion is made between abolitionism as a way that crime is not to be set apart from other, of thinking (an alternative way of under- non-criminalized, social problems and that standing the problem of crime and punish- the social exclusion of ‘culprits’ seldom solves ment) and as a way of acting (a radical problems. Instead, crime problems should be approach to penal reform). treated in the specific context in which they In their attempts at depenalization, aboli- emerge and reactions should be oriented tionists first pointed their arrows at the prison towards reintegration rather than exclusion. system. This struggle has its roots in prison- Neither do abolitionists argue against social ers’ movements or a religiously inspired penal control in general terms. It is indeed hard to lobby (Mathiesen, 1974; van Swaaningen, imagine social coexistence without any form 1997). During the early 1980s, the attention of social control. The problem is the top- shifted to the pros and cons of non-custodial down, repressive, punitive and inflexible measures as alternatives to prison. Warnings character of formal social control systems. It against the net-widening effects were con- is these specific characteristics of penal control trasted with their potential value in the attrition 01-McLaughlin and Muncie-4391-Ch-A.indd 1 14/06/2012 2:39:36 PM THE SAGE DICTIONARY OF CRIMINOLOGY of the penal system. The recognition that Associated Concepts: abolitionism, commu- sanctioning-modalities at the end of the penal nity justice, critical criminology, deconstruc- chain do not change its punitive, excluding tion, redress, the state character focused attention on the diversion of cases in preliminary phases, with the aim Key Readings of preventing the stigmatizing effects of both trial and punishment. This phase was fol- Bianchi, H. and van Swaaningen, R. (eds) lowed by the advocacy of a whole alternative (1986) Abolitionism: Towards a Non- procedural rationale, in which non-punitive Repressive Approach to Crime. Amsterdam: Free University Press. responses to social problems were promoted, Cohen, S. (1988) Against Criminology. New including forms of social crime prevention Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. designed to address the structural contexts of de Haan, W. (1990) The Politics of Redress: crime (de Haan, 1990). Crime, Punishment and Penal Abolition. Notably, Nils Christie’s and Louk London: Unwin Hyman. Hulsman’s abolitionist perspectives contain Mathiesen, T. (1974) The Politics of Abolition. many implicit references to Habermas’s idea London: Martin Robertson. of the ‘colonization of the lifeworld’. The van Swaaningen, R. (1989) ‘Feminism and ‘decolonization’ of criminal justice’s ‘system abolitionism as critiques of criminology’, rationality’ is another object of abolition. International Journal for the Sociology of Though the tension Habermas observes Law, 17 (3): 287–306. between systems and lifeworlds does not lead Van Swaaningen, R. (1997) Critical Crimi- him directly to a rejection of the criminal nology – Visions From Europe. London: justice system, he does argue against the Sage. degeneration of criminal justice into a state- instrument of crime control in which the critical dimension of power is ignored. Thus, penal instrumentalism is another object ABOLITIONISM of abolition which can be derived from Habermas. A further aim of abolition is related to the Definition constitution of moral discourse. In Western, A sociological and political perspective that neo-liberal societies, values like care and empa- analyses criminal justice and penal systems thy are delegated to the private sphere and are as social problems that intensify rather than thereby excluded from public, or political, ethics. diminish crime and its impact. On this basis These latter ethics are dominated by abstract, prisons (the initial focus of study) reinforce so-called ‘masculine’ notions such as rights, dominant ideological constructions of crime, duties and respect, which outrule more sub- reproduce social divisions and distract atten- jective, contextually determined ‘feminine’ tion from crimes committed by the powerful. notions such as care and empathy. The domi- Abolitionists advocate the radical transforma- nance of abstract approaches of rights results tion of the prison and punishment systems in a morality that is oriented towards a gener- and their replacement with a reflexive and alized other, whereas a feminist approach is integrative strategy for dealing with these oriented towards a concrete other. Thus, aboli- complex social phenomena. tionism also implies the abolition of the ‘mas- culine’, individualistic, neo-liberal values upon Distinctive Features which our penal systems are built (van Swaaningen, 1989). Liberal approaches to the study of the prison are built on a number of often competing and contradictory goals: rehabilitation, gen- René van Swaaningen eral prevention, incapacitation, punishment 2 01-McLaughlin and Muncie-4391-Ch-A.indd 2 14/06/2012 2:39:36 PM ABOLITIONISM and individual and collective deterrence. within Europe there have also been different Abolitionism, which emerged out of the strands to the movement with some pointing social movements of the late 1960s, chal- to the distinct differences between European lenges these liberal perspectives by arguing and British movements. In Europe early abo- that in practice the criminal justice system litionists such as Mathiesen, Christie, Bianchi and prisons contribute little to the protection and Hulsman advocated an alternative vision of the individual and the control of crime. In for criminal justice politics. Second genera- the words of the Dutch abolitionist Willem de tion abolitionists – neo-abolitionists – accept Haan, the prison ‘is counter productive, dif- many of the abolitionist principles, including ficult to control and [is] itself a major social the rejection of both the concept of crime and problem’. Crime is understood as a complex, ‘penality as the ultimate metaphor of justice’ socially constructed phenomenon which (van Swaaningen, 1997: 116, 202). However, ‘serves to maintain political power relations British neo-abolitionists such as Box-Grainger, and lends legitimacy to the crime control Ryan, Ward, Hudson and Sim also advocated apparatus and the intensification of surveil- engaging in more interventionist work to lance and control’ (de Haan, 1991: 206–7). develop a ‘criminology from below’, which At the same time abolitionists are critical in utilizing a complex set of competing, contra- of liberals’ unquestioning acceptance of dictory and oppositional discourses, and provid- prison reform. For abolitionists like Thomas ing support on the ground for the confined and Mathiesen liberal reform can never have a their families, has challenged the hegemony positive effect because it reinforces and bol- around prison that has united state servants, sters the system, thus perpetuating processes traditional reform groups and many academics of brutalization for the confined. Alternatively, on the same pragmatic and ideological terrain. In ‘negative reforms’ are supported for their a number of areas … such as deaths in custody, potential to challenge and undermine the prison conditions, medical power, visiting, cen- system leading eventually to the demise of sorship and sentencing these groups have con- ceded key points to the abolitionist argument prisons. Abolitionists advocate a system that and have moved onto a more radical terrain deals with crime as a socially constructed where they too have contested the construction phenomenon. Crime should be responded to of state-defined truth around penal policy. (Sim, not by the negativity of a system built on 1994: 275–6) punitive exclusion but by a reflexive and par- ticipatory system of inclusion built on redress, Evaluation social