Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?: A tangled history of resistance and complicity

by Leah Cowan

How did feminists end up turning to the police and the law to make them safe? A history of British feminism's long connections with the police and criminal justice system.

The abduction and murder of Sarah Everard by London Met officer Wayne Couzens and the sharing photos of the bodies of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry by constables revealed something rotten about policing in Britain. Every week it seems there is a fresh scandal involving abhorrent, racist, misogynist behaviour by serving officers. Yet, these are the very people that women are supposed to seek help from when they face violence. And many feminists continue to hope that the criminal justice system can be used to make women fighting for stronger laws and longer sentences for those who harm them.

Why Would Feminists Trust the Police? traces the history of British feminism’s alliances and struggles with the law and its enforcers, to how did feminists come to rely on the police to make them safe? And how can we change course? Drawing on the history of Black British feminism and police and prison abolition, Leah Cowan issues a the police are not feminists, and they will not bring us safety.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Politics, History, Social Justice, Gender Studies, Womens

240 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2024

Reviews

[malena · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic. I almost expected this to be more essay-like, philosophical and theoretic; but this book was a very thorough, insightful thesis on the police as an institution as well as individuals. Leah Cowan made an excellent intersectional analysis of state power, different kinds of feminisms and activism. At certain points I did struggle to keep up with everything that was said; however the author is not to blame, it’s just that she did this incredibly complex topic justice by going as deep as possible on every mentioned account. I‘m impressed, I learned things, my views were expanded and I am more than ever sure of my stance regarding the police. even if it’s polarising, we cannot stop questioning the power the state (that is always prone to manipulation) exerts over the vast population. We should never stop asking ourselves who the police is serving and who is really being protected. We should ask; do we value the existing structure or do we just like the idea of it?

[Isabela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense reading into the criminal-legal system of the UK and analyzing statistics to ask important questions of this system we spend SO much money on. What do the police do to prevent crime? What does the criminal legal system do to support victims and repair harm? Can we dare to imagine a better world than this?!

[Jeremi Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, especially the last chapter.

[Andreea T]

Critical exploration of modern liberal feminism.

[Asmita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely insightful, well-written and nuanced. Some gems below:

“It’s about building life-affirming institutions. Even the police themselves recognise the clear logic of abolition. Upon retirement, a Merseyside chief constable remarked, ‘The best crime prevention is increased opportunity and reduced poverty,’58 and advocated for diverting funds away from police and towards addressing destitution and unemployment. Healing for and through abolition is not about demolition, but about what we continue to build in the spaces where harm has been smoked out, and the ways in which we expand into those spaces.“

“A slogan graffitied on a wall in Paris during a period of widespread strikes and occupations of universities and factories in the summer of 1968 (known as ‘May ’68’), read, ‘Un flic dort en chacun de nous, il faut le tuer’ (‘A cop sleeps inside every one of us; we must kill him’). Divesting from the carceral system does not just involve abolition of the police, but pushes us to examine how we absorb carceral logics into our daily decision making – the police “officer in our head. Community organiser and academic Sarah Lamble describes this as a shift towards ‘everyday abolition’, a practice of not disposing of people who do or have done things that we don’t like or that harm us.52 Lamble gives examples of times when the police officer sleeping inside us awakens, such as when we moralise against lawbreaking as survival, like shoplifting in a supermarket, or when we demonstrate less interest or commitment to assisting someone get their basic needs met if they have previously harmed someone we care about. In order to expand our capacity for everyday abolition, many of us will need to upskill ourselves in conflict navigation and resolution.”

“In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer also explores indigenous knowledge forms and the teachings of plants, and offers the expression of gratitude as a revolutionary idea: ‘In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness.”

[Fabienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 stars: This is a good book if you are not yet familiar with abolitionist arguments or if you are interested in the specificities of the history of British carceral feminism and movements against it. Having already read an array of abolitionist literature I didn’t find anything, conceptually, that was very new to me, but it is definitely a useful read for those new to the subject.

[anaeliteratura · Rating 4 out of 5]

the more i learn about the world the more demoralized & frustrated i get

[Pip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately I didn’t love this one. The first section of the book looking at the evolution of British feminism felt like it spent a lot of time listing different events or protests without exploring how or why they happened the way they did, or explaining the relationship between them. The book had a lot of sweeping statements that seemed to gloss over significant issues with her arguments.

I thought the section on the NGO-ification and state influence over the feminist movement was interesting and informative, and then when we got into the author’s vision of a non-carceral future it derailed again. There was a lot of purple prose vision statements about healing and transformative justice, but not much that was concrete. Ultimately disappointing :(

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great !!

I have been looking for another non-fiction book to entice me back into the critical thinking world and this is definitely a good one.

The first 100 pages or so are rich with feminist history and its understanding through both a contemporary and contextual gaze. This really helps build a solid foundation for the last portion of the book in which the remedies and radical solutions are backed up with the critiques given in its previous chapters.

Just WOW !!

[OneDimensionalMan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! Good explanation of why carcerality prison police etc cannot resolve gender based violence and clear call for something else.
Good historical nuggets. I do think there were some glaring omissions but you can’t do everything and what is there is very well written and compelling.

[Beverley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really insightful and thought-provoking!

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great book, thoroughly researched and clear call for the need for abolition feminism with the focus on the UK context

[Anna Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful yet terrifying book.

[Sara Frida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Focusing on the community to be supported, reshaping the future through radical work.
Honestly a god send! The last chapter is a home run

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Hate crime policies fail to hold accountable those who are responsible for driving inequality and violence in society, such as governments and corporations '

[Fliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read! Cowan does not mince words, every single sentence is full of information and evaluation.

Take your time, learn things, and above all don’t trust the police.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaining knowledge as to what it means to abolish and defund the police was my main aim for buying this book. The research and care Cowan's put into this is so evident and eye-opening