Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work
The vast majority of people in U.S. women’s prisons are survivors of interpersonal violence, a pattern that organizers and advocates have referred to as the abuse-to-prison pipeline. This article critically examines criminal prosecution from the perspectives of survivors of interpersonal violence wh...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Social Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/184 |
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| author | Sid P. Jordan Emily Thuma Aylaliyah Assefa Birru Deirdre Wilson Romarilyn Ralston Norma Cumpian Joseph Hankins |
| author_facet | Sid P. Jordan Emily Thuma Aylaliyah Assefa Birru Deirdre Wilson Romarilyn Ralston Norma Cumpian Joseph Hankins |
| author_sort | Sid P. Jordan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The vast majority of people in U.S. women’s prisons are survivors of interpersonal violence, a pattern that organizers and advocates have referred to as the abuse-to-prison pipeline. This article critically examines criminal prosecution from the perspectives of survivors of interpersonal violence who faced long prison sentences in California. In-depth interviews and group discussions were generated through a participatory process at a gathering to launch the University of California Sentencing Project, a partnership with the community-based organization California Coalition for Women Prisoners. The twenty-two formerly incarcerated participants had collectively spent more than 300 years imprisoned. Drawing on their lived experiences spanning several decades and multiple jurisdictions, this article offers an unyielding account of tactics of isolation, intimidation, narrative manipulation, and confinement as definitional to prosecutorial practice and culture. This criminalized survivor-centered analysis of prosecution shows how one of the most robustly funded public interventions for interpersonal violence is not merely failing to protect victims but is protracting patterns of abuse and coercive control. Implications are discussed in terms of social care work and collective defense rooted in abolition feminism. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-15f82bf4ea92476994522ce79edb1d2e |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-15f82bf4ea92476994522ce79edb1d2e2025-08-20T02:10:24ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602025-03-0114318410.3390/socsci14030184Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care WorkSid P. Jordan0Emily Thuma1Aylaliyah Assefa Birru2Deirdre Wilson3Romarilyn Ralston4Norma Cumpian5Joseph Hankins6School of Social Work, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97201, USASchool of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Tacoma, WA 98195, USASentencing Project, Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 95817, USASentencing Project, Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 95817, USASentencing Project, Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 95817, USASentencing Project, Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 95817, USASentencing Project, Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 95817, USAThe vast majority of people in U.S. women’s prisons are survivors of interpersonal violence, a pattern that organizers and advocates have referred to as the abuse-to-prison pipeline. This article critically examines criminal prosecution from the perspectives of survivors of interpersonal violence who faced long prison sentences in California. In-depth interviews and group discussions were generated through a participatory process at a gathering to launch the University of California Sentencing Project, a partnership with the community-based organization California Coalition for Women Prisoners. The twenty-two formerly incarcerated participants had collectively spent more than 300 years imprisoned. Drawing on their lived experiences spanning several decades and multiple jurisdictions, this article offers an unyielding account of tactics of isolation, intimidation, narrative manipulation, and confinement as definitional to prosecutorial practice and culture. This criminalized survivor-centered analysis of prosecution shows how one of the most robustly funded public interventions for interpersonal violence is not merely failing to protect victims but is protracting patterns of abuse and coercive control. Implications are discussed in terms of social care work and collective defense rooted in abolition feminism.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/184criminal legal systemsprosecutioninterpersonal violencecriminalized survivorssocial workparticipatory action research |
| spellingShingle | Sid P. Jordan Emily Thuma Aylaliyah Assefa Birru Deirdre Wilson Romarilyn Ralston Norma Cumpian Joseph Hankins Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work Social Sciences criminal legal systems prosecution interpersonal violence criminalized survivors social work participatory action research |
| title | Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work |
| title_full | Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work |
| title_fullStr | Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work |
| title_full_unstemmed | Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work |
| title_short | Disrupting the Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence of Prosecution and Abolitionist Feminist Approaches to Social Care Work |
| title_sort | disrupting the abuse prison nexus the gendered violence of prosecution and abolitionist feminist approaches to social care work |
| topic | criminal legal systems prosecution interpersonal violence criminalized survivors social work participatory action research |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/184 |
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