Resources on Police Abolition
When people hear about responding to and preventing sexual violence without police, they sometimes wonder why this is necessary, or how it can happen. We have assembled links below to articles and further reading on the topic – the opinions of these authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton. Rather, they represent a number of different viewpoints on the issue.
For information on anti-racism and how you can fight racism in your community, visit the Resources page of BLM YEG.
On the movement to Defund the Police (Overviews)
- Defund the Police - BLM Canada
- Defunding The Police Will Save Black And Indigenous Lives In Canada - Sandy Hudson, The Huffington Post
- For a world Without Police Study Guide - A World Without Police
- The Abolition Movement – Josie Duffy Rice, Vanity Fair
On how policing fails survivor-victims of sexual violence
- A Fresh Framework: The Feminism of the Abolition Movement - Rayne Fisher-Quann, Bitch Magazine
- Feminism Requires Abolition: Police Aren’t an Adequate Response to Sexual Violence - Maeve Barry, Ms. Magazine
- Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada - Human Rights Watch
- Unfounded: Why Police Dismiss 1 in 5 Sexual Assault Claims as Baseless - Robyn Doolittle, Globe and Mail
- What About the Rapists? – Mariame Kaba & Eva Nagao, Interrupting Criminalization
- Survivors of Sexual Violence and the Criminal Justice System – St. John’s Status of Women Council
On a community-based response & transformative justice
- Addressing Harm, Accountability, and Healing - Critical Resistance
- Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence - Creative Interventions
- Defunding the Police: What will it mean for survivors of sexual violence? - Heather Lawson, Behind the Numbers
- Philly's Pissed collection of zines on survivor support work
- Stop Law Enforcement Violence Toolkit - INCITE!
- Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Utilizing Community-Based Accountability Strategies to Address Sexual Violence – Annie Gorden, Restorative Justice Centre of UC Berkeley
- What does Transformative Justice Look Like? - Valor US
- “Do I believe we can have a police-free future in our lifetime? Absolutely”: Policing expert Robyn Maynard on how defunding would work in practice - Lara Zarum, Toronto Life
- "Taking The First Step: Suggestions To People Called Out For Abusive Behavior" - Wispy Cockles
- "The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities"
- "What is Accountability?" Panel Discussion, Barnard Centre for Research on Women
- "Transformative justice and restorative justice: Gender-based violence and alternative visions of justice in the United States" - Mimi Kim (link to download academic article)
- "Moving Beyond Critique: Creative Interventions and Reconstructions of Community Accountability"- Mimi Kim
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha & Ejeris Dixon
- Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators - Mariame Kaba & Shira Hassan
On prison abolition
Intersectional Responses to Violence
- Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology - INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
- Abolition. Feminism. Now. - Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, & Beth Richie