What About the Rapists? Anarchist Approaches to Crime and Justice

by Dysophia (Editor), (A)Legal (Contributor), Chrysalis Collective (Contributor)

None of us signed up for anarchy because we live participating in exhausting, interminable processes to address the stupid ways people hurt each other within our subcultural bubbles... When we spend so much time and energy trying to resolve internal conflicts... we risk cutting ourselves off from the pains that brought us together in the first place.
- CrimethInc

This zine looks at contemporary anarchist theory and practice on crime and justice, though it won't be using these terms. The first half will be a critical examination of Transformative Justice-based accountability processes, an approach with origins in US anarchist circles now taking seed in parts of Europe. The other half looks at retributive approaches, such as survivor-led direct action against rapists.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Feminism

113 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2014

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broaching the problem in dual terms of acts of domination and abuses of power accommodates both a systemic understanding of oppression and the exploitation of superior power in a given moment.
---
Rape is not a personal misfortune but an experience with domination shared by many women.

This anarchist zine is a collection of writings on current anarchist theory and practice on ‘crime’ and ‘justice’, beginning with a logical deconstruction of what crime outside of the administrations of the state IS (see quote above) i.e. crime = the abuse of power.

The second section presents the circumstances and experience with a specific accountability process involving rape within an anarchist community / scene, noting difficulties experienced and lessons learned.

We then have a CrimethInc piece that further explores the challenges of voluntary community accountability processes in practice, with a distinctive cis-male focus on self-governance and recognition of the various problems of patriarchy culture we still struggle to leave behind. Given the difficulties of transformative justice processes, this piece then explores alternatives: survivor-led vigilantism, prevention through gender-based organization and education (explicitly, anti-sexist male groups), affinity group based accountability and transformative justice, and broadening the focus on conflict resolution and mediation as opposed to 'justice'.

I think it's time to abandon these false linguistic games we play and go back to the old model. I miss the days when it was considered reasonable to simply kick the living shit out of people and put them on the next train out of town--at least that exchange was clear and honest. --Angustia Celeste. Can't say I disagree...

The final sections focus on direct action against accused perpetrators and other alternatives, acknowledging the pitfalls of dogmatism, failing to question assumptions, and falling back on the failed tools and processes with which we are familiar.

[Juice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mind-opening zine if you’re interested in transformative justice. It doesn’t bring answers per say, but give a precise insight (now a bit old) on how to proceed, what can be done and what might not be a good idea. It’s a first step, but a very important one.

[Neon Green Alien 👾👽 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. I was sceptical going in, and had overall been sceptical towards transformative justice because of my own experiences of sexual assault, I couldn't ever imagine going through a TJ approach with my perpetrator/s, I wanted them dead, beaten up or locked up forever. Whenever I had looked into TJ at all I found it to be really triggering but this book was written so well and has compleltey changed my view point on it.

[Amanda Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my practice, I found it incredibly useful to read about the work of Chrysalis Collective and other transformational justice attempts at bringing about healing in situations of SA. This compilation of shorter zine work also covered the limitations of TJ processes, particularly where they fail to cultivate real safety in collaborative communities, and offered some jumping-off points for how we might proceed in non-punitive attempts to transform behaviour and belief systems that perpetuate gendered violence. As someone who has experienced gendered power dynamics, the writing of this was sometimes so removed it stung a bit, and I could imagine the use in slightly different edited versions for different audiences.

[Paul Doke · Rating 5 out of 5]

does this book answer the question on its cover? no. instead it is an incredible overview of questions that need to be asked, considerations that need to be addressed and an overview of the theory behind potential solutions and experience of those who have tried them.

if you've ever been asked "but what about X?" when discussing abolition, I highly recommend this as an intro to the different theories that are out there.

[Marilynk]

Like I get it, but also I dont agree

[Eline · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting zine but the terminology was difficult at times. You do need a bit of knowledge about the anarchist scene to understand this zine to it's fullest (which I did not). It's good they talked about a lot of different approaches without judgment.