Session 3: Feminist, Queer, Antiracist Abolition
Core Readings (v. 2026):
Audio versions available on Soundcloud
Critical Resistance and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (2008) Statement on Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex. In: Critical Resistance (ed.) Abolition Now! Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex. Oakland, California: AK Press, pp. 21-25. [5 pages].
![S Lamble (2021) The false promise of hate crime laws [4 pages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e35a537763e8d15ff28a167/1640900362960-968E1GGK1Z5O0ME2HJT6/Hate_Crime.jpg)
S Lamble (2021) The false promise of hate crime laws. AbolitionistFutures.com [4 pages]
Julia
Sudbury
(2006) ‘Rethinking Antiviolence Strategies: Lessons from the Black Women’s Movement in Britain’ in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology p. 13-24. Available from [12 pages]
Cowan, L. (2024). Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?: A tangled history of resistance and complicity. Verso Books. pp. 170-180 [12 pages]
Beth
Richie
(2014) ‘How Anti-Violence Activism Taught Me to Become a Prison Abolitionist’ FeministWire.org. [2 pages]
Morgan
Bassichis,
Alexander Lee and Dean Spade. (2011) ‘Building an Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement with Everything We’ve Got’. In: Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, Oakland: AK Press, p.15-19 & 33-37. [10 pages]
Further reading:
Lizzie Hughes (2026) Whipping Up Fear
Beth Richie (2012) Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America's Prison Nation. New York and London: New York University Press.
Oonagh Ryder and Mo Mansfield (2018) “Just Paint the Walls Pink”: Gender, Prison and Carceral Feminism. Lockdown podcast
Joshua Briond (2017) Navigating justice for sexual abuse survivors, when you're a prison abolitionist and a survivor. Afropunk.com.
Joshua Briond (2017) Navigating justice for sexual abuse survivors, when you're a prison abolitionist and a survivor. Afropunk.com.
Lydia Caradonna (2020) I don’t want my rapists to go to prison [content note: descriptions of rape]
Isabel Cristo (2020) Policing Doesn’t Protect Women. The New Republic.
Pluto Press (2024) On abolition feminism with H.L.T. Quan. Radicals in Conversation [Podcast]
Dean Spade & Reina Gossett (2014) No one is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Abolition [videos]
Molly Smith and Juno Mac (2018) Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights. (2018) Verso.
Law, Victoria (2014) Against Carceral Feminism JacobinMag.com
Mariame Kaba and Victoria Law (2019) Transformative Justice in an era of mass criminalization Activist Files podcast
![Cassandra Shaylor (2009) Neither Kind Nor Gentle: The Perils of 'Gender Responsive Justice'. In: Scraton, P. and McQulloch, J. (eds.) The Violence of Incarceration. London & New York: Routledge, p. 145-163. [18 pages] ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e35a537763e8d15ff28a167/1641459534028-TLRBAYQXD5YK1F01LXOW/violence-incarceration-cov.jpg)
Cassandra Shaylor (2009) Neither Kind Nor Gentle: The Perils of 'Gender Responsive Justice'. In: Scraton, P. and McQulloch, J. (eds.) The Violence of Incarceration. London & New York: Routledge, p. 145-163. [18 pages]
Lamble (2011) Ten Reasons to Dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex through Queer/Trans Analysis and Action. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. AK Press.