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Crime and prison

Law & Justice

Derek Chauvin and the Myth of the Impartial Juror

As a space for democratic deliberation and decision-making, the jury box still has the potential to shift the criminal legal system. But, first, we must change who is able to serve on a jury. 

Sonali Chakravarti

Arts in Society, Law & Justice

A Parable and Parody of Restorative Justice

The Netflix series Dead to Me suggests that we might get closer to justice by forgiving each other and ourselves for the sometimes literally fatal flaw of being human.

Judith Levine

Race

The Logic of Eugenics Still Haunts Virginia

Elizabeth Catte’s new book examines how Virginia progressives believed the forced sterilization of poor whites would pave the way to a bright future—and how their legacy endures in national parks and prisons.

Ellen Wayland-Smith

Law & Justice

How Criminal Law Lost Its Mind

Many U.S. criminal statutes betray the bedrock legal principle of mens rea. The result is a deeply unjust system that punishes the morally innocent.

Michael Serota

Gender & Sexuality, Law & Justice

Violence Cannot Remedy Violence

Instead of deterring sexual violence, criminalization has empowered policing and punishment. To prevent both sexual and state-inflicted abuse, we must embrace restorative justice.

Judith Levine, Erica R. Meiners

Gender & Sexuality, Law & Justice

Police Sexual Violence Is Hidden in Plain Sight

Forms of gender-specific violence are baked into the structure of law enforcement. Reform efforts will fail until we eliminate police discretion over women’s bodies.

Anne Gray Fischer

Law & Justice, Race

How the Law Killed Ahmaud Arbery

In many states, legal regimes sanction the predictable murder of innocent black men. Justice will not be served until the law changes.

Joseph Margulies

Law & Justice

Getting Judges on the Side of Abolition

Success in transforming the criminal justice system will depend on convincing judges to shift how they relate to—and rely upon—police in their criminal courtrooms.

Matthew Clair

Law & Justice, Politics

The Problem Isn't Just Police—It's Politics

In this interview, sociologist Alex Vitale explains how the policing crisis in the United States begins with politics—the decision to embrace neoliberal austerity and to turn the social problems it creates over to police.

Alex Vitale, Scott Casleton

Law & Justice

Accept Nothing Less Than Police Abolition

As post-Katrina New Orleans illustrates, even ambitious attempts to reform police leave intact the structures of racial violence. Worse yet, such efforts drain public money that could instead have been invested in caring for communities.

Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

Law & Justice

Hold Prosecutors Accountable, Too

In order to achieve lasting change, we must focus on systemic problems across the criminal justice system. That includes holding prosecutors accountable, not just police.

Kate Levine, Joanna Schwartz

Race, Reading Lists

Abolition Isn't Only About Police

We also need to abolish prisons—as well as put an end to counterterrorism. An abolitionist reading list. 

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

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