Abolition as a Project of Personal Transformation

As calls for defunding and dismantling police and other punishing institutions have become increasingly widespread across the United States in the wake of protests against the murder of George Floyd and other people of color, abolitionism has become increasingly relevant. Even prior to this, however, abolition has been experiencing increasing attention and legitimacy in criminological and legal scholarship. However, much of abolitionism remains under-theorized, particularly regarding the intersection between theory and praxis. This article aims to begin to map some of the heretofore unmapped terrain of abolitionism by looking at the ways in which abolition must involve a component of individual, personal, and relational work — work that involves practicing abolitionist principles in one’s day-to-day life, making continuous efforts to decolonize one’s mind, and building trust, integrity, mutual support, healing, and facing conflict through principled struggle in one’s relationship with self and others.