Intimate Partner Firearm Violence and Abolition Feminism

ABSTRACT: Recently, some anti–domestic violence organizations have signaled a turn toward abolition, recognizing the harm created by and racism embedded in the criminal legal system. But their support for the US government’s prosecution of Zackey Rahimi illustrates how difficult it has been for the anti-violence movement to put these principles into practice. This article provides a brief history of the anti-violence movement’s relationship with the criminal legal system, explores an abolition feminist frame for thinking about how to intervene in the problem of intimate partner firearm violence, and explains why the anti-violence movement, despite its rhetoric, has not embraced abolition.