Table Of ContentJuridische reeks Vrije Universiteit 7
ABOLITIONISM
Redaktie:
Prof.mr, E.J.H. Schrage Towards a non-repressive approach to crime
Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid
Vrije Universiteit
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
Proceedings of the
Second International Conference on Prison Abolition
1. Marleen H.J. van den Horst
The Roman Dutch Law in Sri Lanka Amsterdam 1985
isbn 90-6256-236-1 (1985)
2. L. Hovy / C. Streefkerk
Edited by
‘Zoo is’t dat wij daarin nader willende voorzien’
Prolegomena voor een Ceylonees plakkaatboek Herman Bianchi / Rene van Swaaningen
isbn 90-6256-306-6 (1985)
With contributions from
3. H. Bianchi / R. van Swaaningen (eds) Elizabeth Barker / Roel Bergsma / Herman Bianchi / Nils Christie /
Abolitionism
Stanley Cohen / Howard Davidson / Frank Dunbaugh /
Towards a non-repressive approach to crime
Robert Gaucher / Martti Gronfors / Willem de Haan / Joyce Hes /
isbn 90-6256-179-9 (1986)
Louk Hulsman / Job Knap / Thomas Mathiesen / Wayne Northey /
Sebastian Scheerer / Raymond Schonholtz / Olli Stalstrom /
Rene van Swaaningen / Tony Ward
(YD
S
C
r
r
5
Free University Press
Amsterdam 1986
CONTENTS
FOREWORD - Herman Bianchi and 7
Rene van Swaaningen
INTRODUCTION
What is abolitionism? - Rene van Swaaningen 9
CHAPTER I DEFINING CRIME
Critical Criminology and the Concept of - Louk Hulsman 25
Crime
Suitable Enemies - Nils Christie 42
Power, Prestige, Profit; Production of in - Martti Gronfors and 55
formation on AIDS - new forms of con Olli Stalstrom
trol of homosexuality
CIP-GEGEVENS KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK, DEN HAAG
Teaching Criminology; Crime news and - Robert Gaucher 61
Abolitionism Crime fictions - offsetting the influence
of the mass media
Abolitionism: towards a non-repressive approach to crime ; proceedings of the
Second International Conference on Prison Abolition, Amsterdam 1985 / ed.
CHAPTER II ARGUMENTS FOR ABOLITION
by Herman Bianchi, Rene van Swaaningen ; with contributions from Elizabeth
Barker... [et al.]. - Amsterdam : Free University Press. - (Juridische reeks Vrije
Symbols and Noble Lies; Abolitionism, - Tony Ward 73
Universiteit; nr. 3)
‘just deserts’ and crimes of the powerful
ISBN 90-6256-179-9
SISO 395.81 UDC 343.8 NUGI694
Trefw.: gevangeniswezen ; abolitionisme / criminologie. The Arguments against Prison Construc - Thomas Mathiesen 83
tion
Cover design: Hans Schoolenberg/LUNA Amsterdam
The Paradox of Punishment in the light - Elizabeth Barker 90
Free University Press is an imprint of:
of the anticipatory role^f abolitionism
VU Boekhandel/Uitgeverij b.v.
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands i,
NUGI694
ISBN 90-6256-179-9
© VU Boekhandel/Uitgeverij b.v., Amsterdam, 1986.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
CHAPTER III THE ABOLITIONIST PERSPECTIVE
FOREWORD
Limits to Criminal Law? - Sebastian Scheerer 99
The second International Conference On Prison Abolition (ICOPA ’85)
Abolition: Assensus and Sanctuary - Herman Bianchi 113
was held at the Free University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from 24th
- 27th June 1985. As the first congress of this kind had taken place in
Community Control: To demystify or to - Stanley Cohen 127
Toronto, Canada in 1983, Herman Bianchi, Professor of Criminology and
reaffirm?
Director of the Institute of Criminology at Amsterdam’s Free University,
Community Control without State Con - Howard Davidson 133 initiated a second congress.
It was meant to be a working-conference, where people who are active in
trol; Issues surrounding a feminist and
the field of crime and crime-control, in whatever capacity and quality - be
prison abolitionist approach to violence
they academics, practitioners or politicians - would have the opportunity to
against women
exchange thoughts and experiences on the issue of abolition. This ’think-
tank’ should improve abolitionist theories, in order to bring the ideal of a
CHAPTER IV TOWARDS ABOLITION
non-repressive system of crime-control by means of dispute-settlement
Pitfalls and Strategies of Abolition - Herman Bianchi 147 closer to realisation.
This book is a representative survey of the various aspects of abolitionist
thought. During ICOPA’85 too many papers were presented for them all
Abolitionism and the Politics of Bad - Willem de Haan 157
to be published here. Firstly, thanks must go to all those who contributed to
Conscience
ICOPA’85, either by submitting a paper or giving fiancial support. These
latter were the Dean of the Law School and the Rector Magnificus of the
A Strategy for Abolishing Prisons in the - Frank Dunbaugh 178
Free University, the mayor and councillors of the city of Amsterdam, the
United States
Dutch Probation Service (V.v.R.I.) and a Quaker Committee On Jails and
Justice of the Canadian and American Friends Service Committees. The
Prison Abolition in the Netherlands - Roel Bergsma 201
written contributions will be mentioned in the appendix to this book. Next
Now?
to that, thanks must go to the members of the steering committee of
ICOPA’85; John Blad, Arthur Frid, Joyce Hes, Louk Hulsman, Hilde van
CHAPTER VDISPUTE SETTLEMENT IN PRACTICE
Ransbeek, Sietse Steenstra and Jack Jan Wirken, and to the student-hosts
Criminal Law Does Not Lead to Justice - Job Knap 211 pf the criminology/criminal law departments of both the Free University,
Amsterdam and the Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
It is hoped that we have selected the right papers for this volume - in
The Patchwork of Reality; Exploring - Joyce Hes 219
’proper’ English this time, since the ’individual’ use of the language by
non-criminal means of intervention
non-native speakers during the conference may have deterred some people
from paying serious attention to the issues being raised. Thanks therefore
New Justice Theories and Practice - Raymond Shonholtz 228
go to Brenda McGilliard, a senior social worker in Strathclyde Region,
Scotland, who edited and ’tidied up’ the English of the papers. English
A New Paradigm of Justice - Wayne Northey 238
rather than American spelling has been used throughout, consistent with
________c________y___________________
the intention to present the papers, which have been placed in a logical
order, as a single book.
8 FOREWORD
Last but not least, thanks must go to Pauline den Enting and Marjan
Vrees, secretaries at the Faculty of Law of the Free University, Amster WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM?
dam, who typed out the major part of the, sometimes hardly readable,
manuscript. An Introduction
Herman Bianchi
Rene van Swaaningen,
President ICOPA’85
Assistant at the Institute of
Criminology and Sociology of Law,
Rene van Swaaningen
Free University, Amsterdam,
Secretary ICOPA’85
the Netherlands.
At its core, criminal law is still based on the same repressive assumptions as
the Inquisition from which it originates. From the beginning it has been
seen to create problems instead of solving them. A penal reaction after the
fact is not preventive but desocialises an ever-increasing number of people.
Therefore it would be better to abolish penal means of coercion, and to
replace them by more reparative means. This briefly is the abolitionist
message.
In criminology, abolitionism is quite a young movement. The Ninth
World Congress of Criminology in Vienna, Austria in the autumn of 1983,
was in fact the first time academics presented themselves as abolitionists.
At that time an abolitionist movement could only be found in Norway - on
a small scale in the prisoners’ movement KROM - and on the North-
American continent - on a somewhat larger scale. These latter originates
from a strong, mostly religious inspired, grassroot activist group of people
who are deeply concerned about the poor circumstances in which prisoners
in their countries live. In May 1983, a Quaker Committee on Jails and
Justiceorganised the first International Conference On Prison Abolition in
Toronto, Canada. Quakers have been committed to crime-problems ever
since they developed the Pennsylvania-system in 1787, which in fact meant
the beginning of the modern prison.
Though there was no real academic abolitionist movement, individual
academics like Nils Christie and Thomas Mathiesen in Norway and Her
man Bianchi and Louk Hulsman in the Netherlands, have been writing
abolitionist books and articles since the sixties.^ While the Americans have
always presented themselves as Prison abolitionists, the European aca
demics objected to the criminal justice system as a whole, of which the
prison system is a repressive core, or indeed a metaphor of punitive think
ing in general. In this broader perspective abolitionism is an anticipatory
theory aiming to break down the boundary between the reciprocity of
power-relations and mankind’s freedom-fearing structure.^ ICOPA’85
10 RENE VAN SWAANINGEN WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM? 11
tried to combine the academic and the activist versions of abolitionism. first sight attractive - diversion of penal sanctions. It now seems as if it only
Therefore ICOPA1987 - which will take place in Montreal, Canada - has lengthened the arm of the law, thereby reaching more people than
changed the title now from ’P’ for Prison to ’P’ for Penal. before.^
Academic abolitionism gradually developed from critical criminological In the second half of the nineteenth century the opposition to capital
theories like the labeling-approach of Goffman and Lemert, the ethnome- punishment gained strength. The opponents called themselves abolition
thodology of Garfinkel and Cicourel, and the ’New Criminology’ of Tay ists. Although you can argue that an expansion of prison-sentences is an
lor, Walton and Young. Ever since the new criminologists, united in the alternative to torture and the death penalty, that is not completely true.
’European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control’, initiated Before the ’Great Incarceration’ - a term used by Michel Foucault to
alternative conferences to the governmental criminology-congresses, crim indicate the sociogenesis of the prison sentence in the late eighteenth
inology could no longer be considered as an auxiliary science of criminal century - only a small number of all ’criminals’ were sentenced to death or
law. As a more or less logical extension of this, criminologists themselves to physical punishment. The majority of convicts were either sent on
began to present ways of conflict-settlement, as alternatives to the criminal pilgrimage or to the galleys, or were forced to pay compensation to their
justice approach. victims and to the state. The number of convicts increased greatly when
Direct ideological inspiration for abolitionist points of view came from capital punishment and torture were abolished (I am speaking of the
philosophers like Michel Foucault and Ivan Illich. However, abolitionist Dutch situation, since there are still a shameful number of countries
thought is much older. We see the idea itself in the philosophy of Lao-Tse, employing these inhumane practices, as represented in the reports of
in old Jewish-Christian traditions, in the novels of people like Tolstoy, and Amnesty International). Therefore Foucault speaks of a great incarcera
in the ideas of Nietzsche. At the beginning of this century the Dutch tion. Sanctuary, mediation in transactions with the victims, penance and
law-professor, Clara Meijer-Wichmann, launched abolitionist views on other aspects of dispute-settlement from previous times had, by the way,
criminal justice in her books. Nowadays her ideas are picked up by part of disappeared even earlier than the physical sanctions.
the womens’-movement. At the end of the nineteenth century we could see another abolitionist
The anti-psychiatry movement of Franco Basaglia in Italy and Ronald movement, which was opposed to the concentration of prostitutes in bar
D. Laing in Britain, showed for the first time that de-institutionalisation racks. The government thought it could fight against syphilis and prostitu
could be a serious scientific option, and gave, in my opinion, the last tion-related crime by imposing strict regulation and geographical concen
necessary push for an abolitionist movement in criminology. tration of the problems. Despite, or indeed, because of these state-whore-
The name abolitionism was first used in the 1830s by the anti- slavery houses, both syphilis and criminality increased. As usual in the case of
movement, as we shall see in Herman Bianchi’s contribution Pitfalls and prostitution, the authorities took a very hypocritical stance. On one hand
strategies of abolition. Sebastian Scheerer^ points out some similarities
they played the pimp themselves, on the other hand they prohibited oppor
between these two abolitionisms. Even before abolitionists began to criti tunities for prostitution, so no one else was allowed to become a souteneur.
cise the immorality of slavery and cut through the slaves’ chains, there was You can therefore say that the state monopolised an inhumane system of
another movement that was opposed to the system of slavery. They were female trading. Even now, the clients of prostitutes - who, just like the
called gradualists. These gradualists bought the slaves from their masters clients/buyers of thieves and receivers, make the delinquent activity so
and set them free, but the numbers of slaves kept increasing nonetheless. In lucrative - are not being criminalised at all. This places serious question-
criminology there are other people besides abolitionists who realise that marks against the selective procedure of what is being defined as crime and
penal solutions cannot diminish criminality. While abolitionists wish to what is not (see chapter I).
replace the whole system by non-repressive means, reformists think the We can see that all three of these abolitionist movements are still very up
system itself is alright, but it just needs to be improved. According to to date. Social minorities, like women and coloured people, are still treated
Scheerer^ the reason why the gradualists failed in their attempts was that
unequally by the criminal justice system. In the following paragraphs we
they did not oppose the unjust core of slavery, but focused only on individ shall see how an abolitionist perspective on justice could change their
ual aid. Reformers of criminal law tend to make the same mistakes with position.
their piece-meal activities. Mathiesen calls their reforms positive reforms^
In his opening-lecture Herman Bianchi warned us of the pitfalls of
i.e. reforms that do not contribute to the breakdown of a part of the system abolition; whilst one means to present an alternative, those same repressive
are being co-opted by the system which uses the good ideas to strenghten thoughts can spring up in different guises which one might not recognise at
its repressive force. In the Netherlands we have seen the consequences of first sight. All these ’guises’ need a specific abolitionist answer. The aboli
this danger when the prosecution(l) claimed a strong influence on the - at tionist movement, therefore, does not exist, but keeps adapting to circum-
12 RENE VAN SWAANINGEN
WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM? 13
stances. The paradigm of abolition must be a reflexive one, not a funda
Since there seems little possibility of gaining electoral support from
mentalist one, since that in itself is a metaphor of prison. Mathiesen calls
abolitionist standpoints, the interest of politicians in participating in the
this ’the paradox of abolition’, which is, at one and the same time, both a
conference was rather low. The Euro-M.P., Bram van der Lek, - a former
problem and the answer. It is, according to him, when describing his
member for the Pacifist Socialist Party in the Dutch parliament - who
’un-finished alternative’, ”a continually rotating transition to the uncom spoke at ICOPA, was rather sceptical about the interest his colleagues
pleted. I experience this as the process of life itself”.^
could possibly have in abolitionist ideas. Most of them only speak of
hardening penal policy in fluent military imagery involving ’attacks’,
’struggles’ and ’wars’ against the evil of so-called ’organised crime’. The
The Amsterdam conference^
best thing we could do, according to Van der Lek, is to continue with our
fundamental criticism of neo-classicist tendencies in criminal law, and tell
The timing of ICOPA’85 was both good and bad. Bad, because in these the ill-informed politicians that criminality is something other than what
days even progressive criminologists remain in a neo-classicist acquies they see on crime news, gangster films and cop shows - (see the contribu
cence (see the contribution of Willem de Haan), and penal policy gets tion of Robert Gaucher) - as many assume.
harsher and harsher. In the Netherlands this is most apparent in a new, • In accordance with good abolitionist tradition, no strict scheme of what
non-Dutch, agressive hard drug-policy of the American type, and plans for was going to happen - in the sense of a blueprint of the conference-structure
the building of five new prisons with a capacity of two hundred and fifty - was provided. The timetable and programme was ’un-finished’ itself,
cells each, before 1993. This means the end of a long Dutch tradition of since a finished programme is finished in a double sense of that word.“^ It
decarceration.^
can easily lead to a rigid, stiff and dull conference. Some unexpected
The optimism of the sixties and early seventies has gone. But, when the excitement keeps the discussions lively.
repression grows, the opposition unites. While we hotly opposed the gov Each day one lecture was given. One was by an academic (Herman
ernment’s plans and expressed our criticism in the papers without mincing Bianchi), one by a practitioner (Raymond Shonholtz), and one by a politi
matters, a lively discussion sprang up on the issue of prison abolition. For cian (Bram van der Lek). At least here the threesome of science, practice
the first time the public at large was confronted with a totally different and politics, was realised. There were also three national presentations on
view of criminality, than the simplistic crime-punishment axioma which is the state of imprisonment in various countries. If the allegations are to be
considered as the ’normal’ way of dealing with conflicts. During the con believed, electric collars are a reality in some parts of the United States,
ference we got a lot of publicity for our ideas about the total impotence of where you can already buy shares in private ’correctional institutions’, just
the prison-system to offer any solutions to criminality. Prisons are pressed like in 17th and 18th century Europe, when relatives of the incarcerated
upon us as stones for bread. From its inception, the penal system has been person paid for his stay. Now it is even more commercialised.
criticised for more or less the same reasons. The reason why it still exists is There were about thirty five separate sections and workshops, of which
vividly described by Michel Foucault,^ so I will not repeat it here. one could have attended up to five. Many discussion groups dealt with
At the Amsterdam conference one hundred and eighty five paying various mediation projects - in Finland (Gronfors), Germany (Bussman)
participants were registrated. Predominant among them were Dutch, - or England (Fared) - and many more, of which we decided to publish a
since of course, since the whole event took place in their country - Germans, survey of an American and a Canadian initiative (see Chapter V). In the
Americans and Canadians. The remainder of the participants came from remaining groups the discussions were on the other issues indicated in the
twenty different countries: from Argentina to Poland, from Portugal to book of conference papers, and its addenda.
Australia and from Indonesia to Mexico. Academics were predominant A panel-discussion at the end of the conference ought to have given a
this time, but there were also a great many of grassroot workers, represen survey of the information minuted by students at the discussion groups.
tatives of pressure groups, probation officers, ex-convicts, lawyers, and The panel, however, under the chairmanship of Louk Hulsman, went in
only a few judges and politicians. Those totally opposed to it were not in another direction. Hulsman started to give his own impression of it,
evidence. Unfortunately, there were no representatives of Victim Support followed by Stanley Cohen (Israel), Frank Dunbaugh (U.S.A.), Teresa
projects either. Perhaps they think criminologists are there to cherish BeleZa (Portugal), Ruth Morris (Canada) and Claude Faugeron
so-called criminals, or perhaps their absence is just explained by the lack of (France). Each talk was shorter than the previous one. The time left over
money and personnel which they experience in the Netherlands. Discus for a discussion with the audience was too short for an interchange of
sions on returning the conflict to its legitimate owners^® - in most cases the views.
two disputing parties - merely stayed at an academic level. Raymond Shonholtz, founder of a chain of twenty two neighbourhood
14 RENE VAN SWAANINGEN WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM? 15
justice centres in San Francisco called Community Boards, stated in his power-free communication.
lecture that a dispute settlement usually begins with the solving of the If no solution can be reached within a reasonable time, sanctuary might
problem of Babel. What is relevant, and what is not, is a subjective matter offer possibilities. A sanctuary is a place where wrong-doers may go pend
which can never be determined within a reductionist paradigm like the ing the satisfactory resolution of their acts. During their stay in a sanctuary
judicial one. The directedness to truth-finding, and the highlighting of the prosecution is discharged. This is not a new idea, but was common
’evil’, simply lead to lying, and to misleading and flattering the judges. place in the Middle-Ages in many parts of Europe. Not only churches, but
’’Within such a judicial system everyone is made a loser - the victim whole towns were places of sanctuary. In modern times sanctuary is still
receives no restitution or satisfaction; the community or school - which is a offered in embassies, and, as we have recently seen in the United States, in
great party victim - is not improved or made whole; and the offender is churches. In his book Justice as Sanctuary^^ Bianchi draws up practical
made a victim too”.^^ The situation, from which the conflict arose, stays 20th century proposals for the re-introduction of sanctuaries as one of the
the same. basic conditions for a system of dispute-settlement.
The first interesting thing about community boards is their attitude Canadian Mennonites have initiated a Victim Offender Reconciliation
toward crime. Crime is defined as a conflict between two or more persons. Project (V.O.R.P.) oriented on the needs of the victim. First one focuses on
These conflicts are taken away from the disputants, whereas the conflict is the forgiveness of the offender by his victim, but, if this cannot be achieved,
their property, as we know from Christie^®. Modern man is ’de-skilled’ says there is a fair chance the offender will not commit a fresh offence, because
Shonholtz. He is not capable of solving his own problems anymore, since he has now been confronted with the feelings and emotions of the victim
he needs a professional for nearly everything. His own lost ’dispute-settle which resulted from his deeds. In the judicial procedure these emotions are
ment-capacities’ can however be ’re-skilled’. Community boards try to do not discussed, irrelevant to that process as they are. Criminal justice will,
this, by educating people in neighbourhood centres and schools, since one therefore, never create any understanding, neither for offenders nor for
must start with the youth in order to create a more emancipated future victims. According to the Mennonite representative, Wayne Northey,
generation. Other interesting notions of community boards are that the criminal law is only tough on people, but surely not on crimel
process of solving the problem has therapeutic value in itself, and a small,
but unresolved, conflict leaves one with frustration that can easily lead to Incident
more serious problems. Art Solomon, an American Indian who was pres
ent, mentioned later, having listened to these ideas, that it sounded famil ’De-skilled’ people do not help a victim when they see a crime being
iar to him. Indeed, these thoughts are greatly inspired by the practice of committed. They wait for the police, being too afraid of getting beaten up
dispute-settlement in so-called ’primitive’ societies; the semi-institutional themselves. Even when there is only one offender, and many ’spectators’,
ised ways of negociating without forcing solutions. Solomon suggests that they simply do not want to get ’involved’, each of them claiming that he
his culture could help Western societies to overcome their anomic crises. In cannot rely on the accountability of the others. Though initiatives like
a criminal trial nothing but forcing solutions is practiced. It is even pre community boards try to stimulate this kind of solidarity, present practice
sumed, that there is a consensus about the interpretation of norms and is different.
values. The judicial interpretation is simply the right one! Rejecting this Frans Denkers, advisor to the Amsterdam police forces, who is a well-
consensus model, Bianchi developed an assensus model^^. In the assensus known advocate of this aspect of abolitionism, decided to try an experiment
model the importance of truth-finding is denied, since we have learned with the congress participants. What happened?
from Foucault’s The order of discourse that truth is just that which is A shabby figure walked along the lunchtables. He was the prototype of
defined as being true by those with power. An artificial consensus therefore the suspect. This ’junkie’ snatched a handbag from one of the participants.
conceals power differences in society in court. The opposite of consensus is He was caught even before he was able to reach the door. Two policemen
dissensus. This niodel is very dialectic. The only means of communication ran into the university canteen with remarkable speed. Their attendence,
is by confrontation of powers. In an assensus model communication takes however, was no longer necessary. ” We can handle it ourselves, please go”,
place more smoothly. In a ’power-free’ discussion, with a vulnerable the abolitionists said to the law-enforcers. They did not listen. In an obvious
mediator - this too was introduced by Nils Christie^*^ -, conflict-partners way they started to make their official report. It cannot be sBid that the
exchange ideas that will finally lead to some kind of settlement. This abolitionists just watched it happen apathetically. The victim felt encour
process is more or less comparable to the idea of the pure ’Konsenz’; a aged to talk to the police and to the offender. Our junkie was nevertheless
consensus that is the result of a process of ’normative protected communi taken away. Strangely enough, interest in the victim had also gone by
cative action’, that Jurgen Habermas laid down in his theory on ideal. then;
!
16 RENE VAN SWAANINGEN WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM? 17
By this time the atmosphere was rather hectic. Part of the afternoon- (especially when it concerns social minorities) symbols and noble lies, as
programme was used for discussions about what had happened. A question Tony Ward of an English organisation for penal reform. Radical Alterna
many people posed was: was the police interference real, or was it all tives .to Prison (RAP), puts it in the title to his contribution. Although in
set-up? Denkers wanted to say something, and started an interesting practice equality before the law works out quite differently, it is used to
enough lecture on involvement in crime, and the reactions of people who justify the continuation of the existing legal order.
become victims themselves. This lecture, however, was too long for the One of the groups that suffers under the pretended consensus about how
emotional crowd, and did not answer their central question. It did not help ’Law and Order’ should be interpreted is the group of ethnic minorities,
to say that the meaning of the whole thing would be clarified by looking at whose attendance at the conference was limited. According to the Ameri
the video-tape that had been made of the event. No way! It had already can attorney, Frank Dunbaugh, their contact with the criminal justice
taken up too much time. ’’This was not on the programme”, a little, but system is about twelve and a half times as frequent as that of White (Anglo
hard core, of Americans and Canadians argued. They climbed onto the Saxon Protestant) Americans. It is even more shocking if you look at the
platform, and any further discussion became impossible. Now that a real numbers of death-row convictions. Hardly any white person is ever sen
conflict had arisen the abolitionist ideals seemed to vanish. The ’police tenced to death for killing a black person, whereas a coloured person killing
man’ (Denkers!) simply had to disappear! The organisation was urged to a white can hardly escape from the electric chair, the gaschamber or the
intervene. I did not 'say anything at first because I thought abolitionists lethal injection. One of the congress participants, Delbert Tibbs, himself
ought to be capable of dealing with their own conflicts, but sometime later an ex-convict on death row, can - luckily - tell us all about it. Porter
a vote, as to whether to continue the afternoon, was organised. The major Kirkwood and Marge Woods, representatives of the American ’National
ity of the attenders wanted to see the tape. The videotape itself seemed not Taskforce for People of Color’ emphasise that an alternative perspective on
to show such a poor picture of the abolitionists after all. criminal justice is crucial for ethnic minorities. For them abolitionism is
What everybody could learn from the event that afternoon was that not priniarily a struggle against classism, racism and sexism. Slavery may
only the man in the street is de-skilled, but abolitionists are too! A useful have been abolished, discrimination against coloured people has not. So too
experience for people who think they know better; and moreover reflexive is state-sponsored exploitation of women, but sexism has not been abol
abolitionists - who are the most opposed to formalism - must have the ished at all! The strong feminist flavour around throughout the conference
flexibility to see their own failures in such matters. brings us back to abolitionist roots. One of the ’reciprocal changes’'^
abolitionism presents is the way in which problems are defined. No omni
potent organisation will tell us what is right and what is wrong, but the
Classism, racism and sexism disputants determine that for themselves.
A first-step in this direction is the ’civilisation’ of criminal justice; that is,
Since the criminal law system is a reflection of the prevailing power- taking into the realm of civil law much of what the State currently sets
relationships, social minorities can expect little from it. Why though do itself to be arbiter (see the contribution of Job Knap). The definition of
they sometimes ask for the help of a system that just continues to discrim ’crime’ than takes place on a less abstract level that is much closer to the
inate against them? The answer is quite simple; no one else will protect definition of the parties themselves. Louk Hulsman calls this lower scale
them. Firstly the criminal law system has monopolised the interference in definition-process an anascopic vision. In this way the specific character of
criminalisable conflicts and secondly - because of this monopoly - people the different subcultures of which society consists, are revealed and play an
have been de-skilled from dealing with conflicts, even before they are important role in the definition of right and wrong. Joyce Hes tries to show
defined as crimes. It is nevertheless fatal that part of the womens’- how this could now work in practice in cases of (sexual) violence against
movement wants to see ’serious attention for their problems’, translated women-. She thinks that the negative consequences of penal interference
into ’more severb punishment’ for sexual offenders. This symbolic use of can be diminished by offering help and protection to the woman, and by
criminal law by potential allies of abolitionism easily reinforces the idea imposing a street-prohibition on the man, such as she sets out in her paper.
that using violence is the right way to deal with conflicts. And, moreover, it A district-agent can see that the agreement is fulfilled; A street-prohibita-
is, using the terms of Thomas Mathiesen^^, a ’super-constructing’ idea; an tion is a possible civil-law alternative, which does more for the victim than
idea that at the same time reaffirms the rightness of social relationships in the criminal law does.
their existing form. Policy-makers use the same idea to promote people’s Preventive social control must be stimulated to create a less violent
fears in order to be seen to be tackling ’Law and Order’. Rights as ’equality society; ;:as shown at the beginning of the previous paragraph, but it can
before the law’, ’fair adjustments’ and ’assistence in conflicts’ are merely. easily, turn into something worse than state-control. In ’deskilled’ punitive-
\
18 RENE VAN SWA-ANINGEN WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM? 19
thinking minds, the only social control is repressive social control, as we conference of the European Group in Hamburg (FRG) in September
have seen in neighbourhood-watchgroups. Nevertheless the problem of 1985, which on this occasion also dealt with the issue of prison abolition,
crime can only be solved in its specific context: shoplifting in the context of Scheerer indicated the contradiction between the desired dissolution of the
the ’see-and-take’ character of supermarkets, football-vandalism in the penal system and its present expansion, but warned against the despair to
context of sport-infatuation and alienation, and drug-related crime in the which this contradiction can lead.^^
context of the high prices created by the prohibition of some drugs them In his national presentation for Western Germany at ICOPA’85,
selves. These contexts are unlikely to be changed in the near future, but we Scheerer pled for an abolitionist lobby into the ’green’ politics, together
must nevertheless stick to our ideal-typical - but the only real - solutions. with the peace-, ecology/enviriomental- and womens’movement, that have
We have to reaffirm our original values, as Stan Cohen states in his already found their way into politics in Europe. That is something else with
contribution. Ineffective repressive social control must be changed into a which Van der Lek will agree, since he is now a member of the ’green’
potentially visible, preventive social control which is not specialised in (peace) Rainbow-coalition in the European parliament, with a special
crime-control, but is preventive just by reason of its being there. The interest in abolitionism. He can become our own new Rainbow Warrior!
educational programme of community boards is an illustration of how this Exclusion is de-humanising, it creates a class of outcasts, and will
type of social control could be stimulated. remain incompatible with our ideas on freedom and human dignity. There
fore it is simply impossible to consider that prisons could ever contribute to
a more righteous society. Since Machiavelli’s time, as we know for sure, a
Broadening the abolitionist horizon goal can be perverted from the outset by the use of indecent means. In one’s
daily work one must be satisfied with less pretentious ideals than the
In the days of declining social welfare and a hardening penal policy, we immediate abolition of prisons.
might have to concentrate on the defence of penal reforms that have been ”An abolitionism which is nothing more than a science, is a prison-
achieved in the sixties and early seventies. After that, the main thing we on-its-own”, says Manuel Kneepkens^*, and he organised his fifth Battle of
abolitionists can do, according to Willem de Haan, is to make it as difficult Jericho ’’into the landscape of society”, i.e. around the prison. The old
as possible to justify punishment: ’’and let’s do it in every conceivable testament story, in which the walls of the city came tumbling down, is a
way”, he added in his contribution. De Haan called this annoying shadow model for abolitionists in their fight for prison abolition. It gives abolition-
ing of policy-makers, the politics of bad conscience. Stan Cohen agreed: isni an imaginative power. The convicts, with whom the conference’s
”Go on telling them” - he says - ’’that the emperor has no clothes”. participants had had a discussion that same afternoon inside the towers of
Progressive politicians will be happy if we do so, if we are to believe Van der the Amsterdam prison ’Bijlmerbajes’, seemed to agree. On the evening of
Lek, since they are too ill-informed to oppose rightfully. We must, howev the battle they sympathised - now separated by thick windows, a wall and a
er, watch out that we do not become too negative. All the pessimism and canal - by banging at the windows, flashing lights, lighters and candles,
scepticism of the radical criminology of the seventies did not support the and stamping on the floor. That, together with the siren that some ex
development of new ideas, and led finally to an analytical despair and an convicts had brought with them, made a terrific bustle!
adversarial nihilism, Stan Cohen stated during the panel discussion. Let us Abolitionism wants to set society free. It wants to abolish prisons as
therefore reaffirm the positive message of abolitionism. metaphors of punitive thinking. It is, using the words of the poet and
Sebastian Sheerer has become more optimistic during the first years of lawyer, Manuel Kneepkens: ”an action which at the same time contains a
the abolitionist movement. At the Vienna conference he thought abolition form of self-liberation. Everything else is dishonesty
ism was merely a ’sensitising theory’^. At ICOPA’85 he saw possibilities
for making use of the present crises in law and the State, as possible
entrances into a mbre responsive law system.
Civil-law alternatives and projects like community boards, V.O.R.P.
and comparable initiatives are other examples of the abolitionist perspec
tive, in which the victim’s whishes are taken seriously, instead of him or her
being considered to be a non entity in criminal procedures, or the vengeful
caricature which the North-American Victims’ Lobbies make him. Of
course, we have to beware of co-optation, the taking over and misuse of
intentionally good ideas, while presenting our alternatives. At the yearly
20 RENE VAN SWAANINGEN WHAT IS ABOLITIONISM? 21
Notes 13. Herman Bianchi - Gerechtigheid als vrijplaats, de terugkeer van het slachtof-
fer in ons recht, chapter 4. (Justice as sanctuary; the return of the victim into
our law-system) Baarn 1985.
1. Herman Bianchi’s book Ethiek van het straffen (Ethics of punishing), in
which he firstly developed his ideas on Tsedeka-justice, was published in 1964
14. Nils Christie - Limits to pain, Oslo 1981.
(Callenbach, Nijkerk).
15. Thomas Mathiesen - Law, society and political action’, towards a strategy
2. This vision is expressed by me in: Rene van Swaaningen - Manifestaties van
under late capitalism. London 1980.
macht; voertuigen van abolitionistisch denken. (Manifestations of power; vehi
cles of abolitionist thought), in which I compare the analyses of power by
16. op.cit. note 15. chapter 4.
Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, Erich Fromm, Theodor
Adorno and Ivan Illich, and try to find a anti-thetical way out for abolitionism,
doctoral essay in criminology. Free University Amsterdam, January 1986. 17. The Working Papers in European Criminology of the Hamburg conference
will be published by September 1986. To be ordered at: Paddy Hillyard, Dep.
of Soc. Adm., 40 Berkeley Square, GB - Bristol BS8 IHY.
3. Sebastian Scheerer - Die abolitionistische Perspektive. (The abolitionist per
spective). In: Kriminologisches Journal nr. 2,1984.
18. Manuel Kneepkens - Val om, val om. val omU! In: KRI no. 5, 1985. A shorter
4. Thomas Mathiesen - The politics of abolition, Oslo 1974. English version of this essay was distributed at the conference as Fall down,
fall down, fall down}!!, see note 11.
5. A good survey of Mathiesen’s theory was presented at ICOPA’85 by David
Brown and Rusell Hogg - Abolition reconsidered: issues and problems, in:
congress volume page X.26, June 1985, and the example of the diversion
practice in the Netherlands was described there by Gerard de Jonge of the
Coornhert League for Penal Reform in his paper Community Service in
Holland: A Penal sham succes, see also note 11.
6. op.cit. note 4, page 28.
7. An earlier survey of the results of the conference and its events is given in a
previous article of mine: Rene van Swaaningen - Gevangenis: bewijs van
onvermogen (Prison: proof of impotence; impressions from the second Interna
tional Conference On Prison Abolition) published in: Proces nr. 9, September
1985.
8. Sibo van Ruller - The end of decarceration. Paper presented at ICOPA’85 in
congress volume page III.5, June 1985, see note 11.
9. Michel Foucault - Discipline and punish', the birth of the prison. Paris
1975/New York 1979, part four.
10. Nils Christie - Conflicts as property. In: British journal of criminology vol. 17,
no. 1, 1977.
11. A list of all papers that were presented at ICOPA’85 is inserted in the appen
dix, at the end of this book.
12. Raymond Shonholtz - A justice-system that isn’t working and its impact on
the community, page 7,1982. Community Boards Program, 149 Ninth Street,
San Fransisco CA 94103.
