Amidst a renewal of abolitionist dialogues, the field of criminology has begun to turn its attention to a range of alternative justice mechanisms. However, academia remains somewhat detached from contemporary efforts to advance and interrogate the objectives of abolitionism. Seeking to reconcile this separation, this discussion group aims to provide a collaborative space for scholars, practitioners and activists to explore, suggest, develop and reckon with a broad range of abolitionist imaginaries and praxis.
The Discussion Group meets on Tuesdays alternating with the Southernising Criminology Group, with discussions taking the form of a presentation delivered by a guest speaker followed by an audience-led Q&A. For further information, please subscribe to our mailing list.
Next Event:
11 March 2025, 4:15-5:30PM BST | Hope Chilokoa-Mullen on 'Decriminalising youth: Reframing "safety" for racialised young people'
Abstract: From the Prevent programme in schools to London’s Gangs Matrix, the mass surveillance and criminalisation of Black and Brown young people across the UK seems to be ever expanding. And with every emerging news story on ‘youth violence’, mainstream proposed solutions tend to centre around harsher punishment rather than care or support. This discussion group will reflect on what it would take to truly create spaces of safety for young people, and how carceral logics present barriers to achieving this. We will think through how racialised notions of ‘threat’ and ‘security’ are used to justify hyper-policing, and consider what a care-centred understanding of safety and safeguarding might practically look like.
Speaker: Hope Chilokoa-Mullen is a youth worker and community organiser. She currently leads the Build Power team at The 4Front Project and is active in grassroots abolitionist movements on policing, borders and education, as part of groups including No More Exclusions. She completed an MSc in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford in 2022.
This event will take place both in-person and online. The in-person event will be hosted at the Criminology Seminar Room at the Centre for Criminology (St. Cross Building, OX1 3TJ). For those attending online, register here to receive a Microsoft Teams link.
A List of Past Events:
6 February 2024 SM Rodriguez on Abolition and the Black Feminist Imagination
5 March 2024 Adam Elliott-Cooper: We did not come alive in Britain: From Anti-colonialism to Abolition In collaboration w/ Race and Post-Colonial Geographies Series. School of Geography
7 May 2024 Diana Volpe on Divest Borders - Reflections on Migrant Solidarity Activism on and off Campus.
21 May 2024 molly ackhurst and Ellie Whittingdale on Feminist Entanglements and the State of Stuckness: The Tensions, and Possibilities, of Abolition in Feminist Sexual Violence Work.
3 June 2024 Railda Alves and Miriam Duarte Peireira on Families Building Paths: A Talk with the Founders of the Brazilian Abolitionist Organisation AMPARAR (Associação de Amigos e Familiares de Presos/ Association of Prisoners’ Family Members and Friends). You can watch the recording here.
15 October 2024 Lisa Monchalin on Dismantling Colonial Punishment: Toward Indigenous Justice Solutions.
11 February 2025 Camila Pelsinger on Abolition Feminism and Theorizing Transformative Accountability.
