Allegra McLeod

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Essay
Volume 89.2
An Abolitionist Critique of Violence
Allegra McLeod
Professor, Georgetown University Law Center.

I wish to thank Sherally Munshi, Erum Kidwai, Saba Rewald, and participants at the University of Chicago Law School’s Symposium on violence for their engagement with this project. I am also most grateful to the abolitionist organizers, writers, and thinkers whose work to confront violence expands our collective imagination and contributes much to the realization of a more peaceful and just world.

This article proceeds by engaging the critical reflections, writing, organizing, and imaginative visions of contemporary abolitionists who are confronting the sources of violence by building solidaristic and equitable economic alternatives, proliferating peaceful and constructive approaches to violence that do not rely on militarized criminal law enforcement, working to reallocate resources from militarism toward human flourishing, and to commence a just transition to more environmentally sustainable forms of organizing human life on earth.