A profound, compelling argument for abolition feminism—to
protect criminalized survivors of gender-based violence, we must
dismantle the carceral system.
Since the 1970s, anti-violence
advocates have worked to make the legal system more responsive to
gender-based violence. But greater state intervention in cases of
intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and trafficking has
led to the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of
victims, particularly women of color and trans and
gender-nonconforming people. Imperfect
Victims argues that only
dismantling the system will bring that punishment to an end.
Amplifying the voices of survivors,
including her own clients, abolitionist law professor Leigh Goodmark
deftly guides readers on a step-by-step journey through the
criminalization of survival. Abolition feminism reveals the
possibility of a just world beyond the carceral state, which is
fundamentally unable to respond to, let alone remedy, harm. As
Imperfect Victims
shows, abolition feminism is the only politics and practice that can
unwind the indescribable damage inflicted on survivors by the very
system purporting to protect them.
