Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

2022

Publication Title

Carceral Logics: Human Incarceration and Animal Captivity

Abstract

This chapter places the criminalization of harm to non-human animals within a larger context of left and progressive efforts to use criminal law to address social problems. This chapter treats the animal welfare movement’s turn to criminal legal solutions as a case study of the broader phenomenon of “carceral progressivism.” Specifically, the chapter identifies this case study as reflecting two particularly common features of left or progressive criminalization projects: (1) the presence of a particularly vulnerable class of victims; and (2) the claim that criminal law can send a message about society’s respect for that class of victims and condemnation of harm done to them. Ultimately, the chapter argues that carceral progressivism – despite its ostensibly egalitarian or left commitments – risks reinscribing and legitimating the evils of the carceral state.

Keywords

Criminal Law, Abolition, Decarceration, Mass Incarceration, Overcriminalization, Expressivism, Victims’ Rights, Animal Rights, Carceral Progressivism

Publication Citation

Benjamin Levin, Carceral Progressivism and Animal Victims, in Carceral Logics: Human Incarceration and Animal Captivity 87 (Lori Gruen & Justin Marceau eds., 2022)

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