Speaking the language of state violence: an abolitionist perspective

This article explores the 'violence of incarceration' from an abolitionist perspective. The article starts by exploring the meaning of 'state violence' and connecting this with broader debates around 'structural violence'. It then goes on to overview the abolitionist approach, first by differentiating it from liberal penological understandings of violence in prison and then by naming the 'violence of incarceration' as form of state violence. The article concludes with a call for the mobilisation of social justice activists against all manifestations of state violence