Against State Violence: Social Work and the Pursuit of Abolition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/ser_social.v27i57.58666Keywords:
Abolition, state violence, social work, ethicsAbstract
The profession and discipline of social work is concerned with myriad issues related to human
suffering and human flourishing, including issues of violence, racism, poverty and inequality.
Yet, state violence, a term with varying meanings broadly referring to the ways in which
governments enact violence on their people, remains at the margins of social work theory and
practice. In recent years abolitionist politics and principles have been taken up by a growing
number of social workers who have argued that the abolition of state violence should be core to
what social work does. This article examines the relationship between social work and state
violence, arguing that violence enacted on people by their government, in particular by carceral
systems, should be a concern for the social work profession, and for social workers everywhere.
The article concludes with an analysis and exploration of abolitionist strategies that social work
can take up to abolish state violence.
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