Carceral feminism

Carceral feminism is an approach to gendered violence that relies heavily on policing, prosecution, and imprisonment. Critics argue that these responses can reinforce state violence and deepen inequalities.

Mandatory arrest: A policy requiring police to make an arrest when they find probable cause of a specified offense. Arrest mandates show how responses to domestic violence can shift discretion toward compulsory state intervention.
Anti-rape movement: A social movement challenging sexual violence and the institutions and norms that enable it. Its activism helped make rape law and criminal-justice reform central political concerns.
Abolitionist feminism: A feminist politics that seeks to end carceral institutions while building alternatives to address violence and social needs. It directly challenges the use of policing and prisons as feminist tools.
Intersectionality: A framework for analyzing how overlapping systems of power shape distinct experiences of inequality. It reveals how punitive policies affect people differently across race, class, sexuality, and immigration status.
Three strikes law: A sentencing law imposing substantially longer penalties after repeated convictions for specified crimes. Repeat-offender penalties illustrate the expansion of punishment within crime-control approaches.
Second-wave feminism: A feminist movement, especially prominent from the 1960s through the 1980s, focused on structural gender inequality. Its campaigns against rape and domestic violence formed part of the political groundwork.
Transformative justice: A community-based approach to harm that seeks accountability and changed conditions without relying on state punishment. It proposes ways to address violence outside conventional criminal-legal systems.
Racialized mass incarceration: The large-scale imprisonment of people in the United States, shaped by racial inequality in policing and punishment. Critics warn that expanding criminal enforcement can intensify existing racial disparities.
Sex offender registry: A government database that tracks people convicted of designated sexual offenses. Registry policies extend punishment and surveillance beyond imprisonment in the name of public safety.
Violence Against Women Act: A United States federal law first enacted in 1994 that funded services and expanded responses to gender-based violence. Its criminal-justice provisions exemplify federal adoption of punitive responses alongside victim services.

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