City Research Online

Abstract

Calls to defund the police emerged from Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020, inspiring USA cities to shift funding from policing to social welfare. Here we consider how defunding might translate to the UK, raising critical questions about our distinct funding arrangements, and social welfare traditions. Next, we consider how the spirit of defunding could be adapted in the UK drawing on the left realist proposition of minimal policing, radically restricting police powers and autonomy. In contrast to many abolitionists, we foresee the state continuing to play an important role in ensuring justice through the development of specialist non‐police led agencies to respond to serious crimes and residual conflicts.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Authors. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice published by Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	Black Lives Matter (BLM), defunding, policing, racism
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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