Published In
Social Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-26-2025
Subjects
Social Work education, Pedagogy
Abstract
Social work has historically operated as an extension of the carceral state, embedding policing, surveillance, and punishment into youth-serving institutions under the guise of care. This paper examines carceral seepage—the infiltration of punitive logics into social work practice—across child welfare, education, and juvenile legal, revealing how these systems function as interconnected circuits of criminalization rather than support. Using abolitionist frameworks, we critique social work’s complicity in punitive interventions and address common concerns about safety, scalability, and sustainability. Instead of reforming oppressive institutions, we argue for a fundamental transformation of social work, advocating for non-carceral models such as community-led crisis response, restorative justice, and mutual aid. By divesting from punishment and investing in collective care, abolitionist social work can move beyond harm reduction and toward genuine liberation.
Rights
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Locate the Document
DOI
10.3390/socsci14090535
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44151
Publisher
MDPI AG
Citation Details
Washington, D. M., Brown, B. R., Ballesteros, D., & Davis, R. L. (2025). Abolition and Social Work: Dismantling Carceral Logics to Build Systems of Care. Social Sciences, 14(9), 535.