We Make Our Own Justice: Global Alternatives to Policing and Prisons

What if we abolished police, courts, and prisons? Where would we turn for justice? Do we need to have laws? Punishment? These questions are not just the preoccupation of an abolitionist pipedream. Their answers exist already if only we know where to look.

We Make Our Own Justice introduces the reader to communities worldwide that resolve harms and conflicts without looking to the state or judiciary. The book explores several locations where alternative forms of justice, peace-keeping, and adjudication occur. With a particular focus on indigenous and women-led movements from across Mexico, Argentina, Rojava, and the USA, Marina Sitrin looks at how each came to be and the theoretical and political underpinnings of the process.

The book allows the reader to reflect on how the seeds of these alternative forms of justice and adjudication have been planted and nurtured over time—often over decades—and to consider the possibilities for other communities and regions to produce something similar. We Make Our Own Justice offers an invaluable resource, fostering optimism and open-mindedness as we seek to transform our neighborhoods, groups, and communities into abolitionist spaces in theory and practice.