A review by bedsidearchive
The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Harm, Ending State Violence by Erica R. Meiners, Judith Levine

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

 
“The sex offense legal regime does no good and much harm. It displaces real child protection with a false sense of security.’

This is one of the most helpful books I have ever read. Levine and Meiners successfully tackle the part of abolition that intimidates many, while explaining that these struggles have been going on for decades. They provide much needed nuance and dedicate several parts of the book to discussing abolitionist approaches which they disagree on. This cancels out one of the pitfalls of modern-ideology in this age which has a tendency to view issues as right/wrong. Humans are too complicated to fit into these restrictive models.

Despite the evolution of legislative language surrounding sexual crimes, this system will never be centered around survivors. Survivors are often criminalized themselves, are shamed in seeking support, and sometimes are abused by law enforcement. In many instances, abusers themselves are often victims of sexual abuse.

Reading this book as someone who does work in the community with registered people, victims of SA, and many times both, this book was so validating. These authors make sure we can see behind the “predator” stereotype that was used to justify these political pushes for increased policing, longer sentences, and increased monitoring, while ignoring that most of these instances of harm happen in close circles. It was interesting to see that WA state was such a big pioneer for increases in policing in prisons with regards to sex offenders. Such laws criminalize sex workers, POC, queer and trans people, disabled people, and do nothing to protect people communities made vulnerable by state violence.

At the end, there's "Ten Ways to Confront Sexual Harm, End State Violence, and Transform Our Communities," which provides ways to put this commitment to justice into action. This includes large goals of building a welfare state, decriminalizing, defunding, and abolishing carceral systems, but also more goals like radical sex-ed (for children & adults), deconstructing gender, rethinking safety, etc.