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In the Shadow of the Carceral State: The Evolution of Feminist and Institutional Activism Against Sexual Violence

Gen, Bethany MunYeen
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1621882615561857

Abstract Details

2021, BA, Oberlin College, Politics.
This paper aims to trace the development of carceral feminist politics within United States institutions and feminist movements. I first define and describe Modern Carceral Feminism. I then argue that the development of Modern Carceral Feminism hinged on two different political moments: the development of a homogenous understanding of women’s oppression in the second wave feminist movement, and the rising political salience of racialized crime leading to punitive policies nationwide in the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s. As a result, carceral feminist logics became pervasive within institutional and feminist activism against sexual violence. By the 1980s, reactionary feminist anti-violence movements, like the anti-rape movement and the battered women’s movement, relied on mostly punitive enforcement and policing. This tradition expanded with federal action against the so-called "campus rape epidemic” solidifying the domination of carceral feminist approaches in the 2010s. I end by highlighting a different kind of feminism, abolition feminism, coined by activist and legal scholar Angela Y. Davis. Learning from Black and POC-led abolition feminist organizations, I find that there are three key elements to activism that works to reduce both interpersonal violence as well as the violence caused by the carceral state.
M. David Forrest (Advisor)
Kristina Mani (Committee Member)
Cortney L. Smith (Committee Member)
114 p.
Criminology; Gender Studies; History; Political Science; Social Research
Carceral feminism; Feminism; Sexual violence; Sexual assault; Rape; Transformative justice; Second-wave feminism; Anti-rape movement; Campus rape epidemic; Abolition feminism; State violence; Social movements

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gen, B. M. (2021). In the Shadow of the Carceral State: The Evolution of Feminist and Institutional Activism Against Sexual Violence [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1621882615561857

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gen, Bethany. In the Shadow of the Carceral State: The Evolution of Feminist and Institutional Activism Against Sexual Violence. 2021. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1621882615561857.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gen, Bethany. "In the Shadow of the Carceral State: The Evolution of Feminist and Institutional Activism Against Sexual Violence." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1621882615561857

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1621882615561857
297
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.