Visualising an Abolitionist Real Utopia: Principles, Policy and Praxis

Abstract

In his Willem Bonger memorial lecture in 1990 Stanley Cohen laid down the definitive challenge for penal abolitionism. Cohen (1990) argued that penal abolitionists must adhere to three potentially contradictory demands: (1) deliver honest, rigorous and relevant intellectual enquiries into key issues and problems confronting the scope and application of modern criminal processes; (2) present feasible, realistic and viable alternatives to existing dehumanising practices that provide immediate and effective aid for individual sufferers; and (3) construct a systematic, coherent and radical normative framework that can provide a road map for progressive social change rooted in the principles of social justice and human rights. For Cohen (1990) penal abolitionists must be prepared to honestly answer the question, what can we do right now to mitigate the humanitarian crises confronting contemporary penal practices without abandoning the broader obligation to promote radically alternative responses to troublesome human conduct? To appease Cohen’s three ‘voracious gods’, penal abolitionists must combine the ethical imperative to promote immediate help with a political desire for radical transformations of social and penal systems. This necessitates recognition and engagement with the problems and possibilities of our historical moment alongside a disruption of the ideological limitations placed upon what is considered appropriate and feasible.