FemResThe Living Review
06Safety

Does punishment make us safer?

Beginning with Abolition. Feminism. Now., this issue moves between gender violence, policing, imprisonment and community accountability to ask: when the state promises safety through punishment, who becomes easier to surveil, criminalize and abandon? Can feminism imagine justice as supporting survivors, interrupting harm and changing the conditions that produce violence—not merely building larger cages?

Cover story
Abolition. Feminism. Now.

In this issue

30 items

Books9

01

Books · Jan 2022

Abolition. Feminism. Now.

Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, Beth E. Richie

This collaborative work traces abolition feminism through women-of-color, queer, anti-capitalist, internationalist movement histories.

02

Books · Feb 2021

We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

Mariame Kaba

We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice connects punishment, gender, race, and community safety, strengthening FemRes coverage of abolition feminism and transformative justice.

03

Books · Aug 2022

No More Police: A Case for Abolition

Mariame Kaba, Andrea J. Ritchie

No More Police reframes safety by taking it out of punishment infrastructure and into care, survivor support, and social redesign, advancing abolitionist feminist and transformative justice frameworks.

04

Books · Aug 2016

Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology connects punishment, gender, race, and community safety, strengthening FemRes coverage of abolition feminism and transformative justice.

05

Books · Jan 2020

Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

Ejeris Dixon, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement connects punishment, gender, race, and community safety, strengthening FemRes coverage of abolition feminism and transformative justice.

06

Books · Mar 2019

Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair

Danielle Sered

Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair connects punishment, gender, race, and community safety, strengthening FemRes coverage of abolition feminism and transformative justice.

07

Books · Sep 2015

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex

Eric A. Stanley, Nat Smith

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex connects punishment, gender, race, and community safety, strengthening FemRes coverage of abolition feminism and transformative justice.

08

Books · May 2020

Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition

Liat Ben-Moshe

Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition connects punishment, gender, race, and community safety, strengthening FemRes coverage of abolition feminism and transformative justice.

09

Books · Aug 2016

The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities

Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

A landmark collection by survivors, organizers, and community workers asking how social justice movements can confront intimate violence and build accountability without relying on police and prisons.

Films7

01

Films · Dec 2022

Women Talking

Sarah Polley

A drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley, adapted from Miriam Toews' novel of the same name. Set in a Bolivian Mennonite community, following a group of women who gather to discuss their future after discovering systematic sexual assault by men in their community. The film deeply explores important issues including religious patriarchy critique, collective trauma and healing, women's political awakening, and the power of silence versus voice.

02

Films · May 2004

Moolaadé

Ousmane Sembène

Four girls threatened with cutting seek sanctuary from Collé, turning one courtyard into a conflict over women’s authority, collective resistance, and the power to redefine tradition.

03

Films · Sep 2017

Angels Wear White

嘉年华Vivian Qu

In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working at the motel reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she stays silent. The film offers a piercing look at the systemic failures and societal indifference surrounding sexual violence against young women in contemporary China.

04

Films · May 2024

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Rungano Nyoni

A black comedy drama directed by Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, starring Susan Chardy. Following young woman Shula who discovers her uncle Fred's body late at night, the film explores the revelation of buried family sexual assault secrets during funeral proceedings with her cousins. With its unique African perspective, the film examines the complex relationships between family trauma, cultural traditions, and women's voices, becoming an important representative work of contemporary African feminist cinema.

05

Films · Oct 2018

The Hate U Give

George Tillman Jr.

Adapted from Angie Thomas's bestselling novel, follows 16-year-old African American girl Starr's journey from silence to voice after witnessing her friend Khalil being shot by police. This coming-of-age drama deeply explores police violence, systemic racism, Black women's voices and agency, and young women's awakening and growth in social justice movements.

06

Films · Dec 2020

Promising Young Woman

Emerald Fennell

A bold and provocative thriller that confronts rape culture through the story of Cassie, a woman seeking justice for her best friend's assault. This Academy Award-winning film challenges audiences to examine complicity, consent, and the systems that protect predators.

07
Films

Films · Sep 2015

3000 Nights

3000 LaylaMai Masri

Mai Masri’s prison drama follows a Palestinian teacher who gives birth in Israeli custody, locating motherhood, collective resistance, and political imprisonment within the same carceral space.

Videos3

Podcasts2

Articles3

Papers6

01

Papers · May 2018

From Carceral Feminism to Transformative Justice

From Carceral Feminism to Transformative Justice: Women-of-Color Feminism and Alternatives to IncarcerationMimi E. Kim

A women-of-color feminist account of anti-violence responses that pursue accountability, repair, and safety without relying on incarceration.

02

Papers · May 2019

The Carceral Creep

The Carceral Creep: Gender-Based Violence, Race, and the Expansion of the Punitive State, 1973-1983Mimi E. Kim

A historical study of how gender-based violence reform became entangled with racialized law-and-order politics and punitive state expansion.

03

Papers · Jul 1991

Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color

Kimberlé Crenshaw

This groundbreaking 1991 article systematically articulates intersectionality theory, analyzing how race, gender, and other identity dimensions interact to shape the unique experiences of violence faced by women of color. Crenshaw critiques how anti-discrimination law and feminist movements fail to adequately address multiply-marginalized groups, calling for more inclusive frameworks of social justice.

04

Papers · Dec 2007

The Sexual Politics of the New Abolitionism

Elizabeth Bernstein

A key article on how anti-trafficking politics links sexuality, markets, morality, and punitive state power.

05

Papers · Oct 2023

The Feminization of Resistance: The Narratives of #NiUnaMenos as Social Transformative Action

Maria Clara Medina

A narrative study of Ni Una Menos as more than a protest against femicide: a plural political practice seeking to transform precarious life, relationships, knowledge, and solidarity.

06

Papers · Mar 2016

Ending Violence against Women in Latin America: Feminist Norm Setting in a Multilevel Context

Conny Roggeband

A study of feminist norm-making from resistance under dictatorship to the Belém do Pará Convention, focused on the persistent gap between regional commitments and state practice.