Adding to the trauma of patriarchal violence is the experience of being criminalized explicitly for the strategies that bring people safety, security, healing, and self-determination — or even for just existing in the world.
For some people — especially Black people, queer and trans, non-US citizens, young people, people with mental illness, disabled people, neurodivergent people, people who use drugs, people living outside, people living with HIV— the criminalization of survival exists as a method for social control and makes them more vulnerable not only to imprisonment, but also to poor health outcomes, abuse, and exploitation. People with these identities and life experiences are also those who have been historically excluded from public health discourse, stigmatized, exploited by public health research, practice, and institutions.
The following selected resources provide insight into criminalized survival practices with the hopes of illuminating the need for alternatives to carceral solutions for people whose survival is criminalized.
Selected Resources
Discussion Questions
Who To Follow
For Further Learning
Find out where your city and state fall on criminalizing people experiencing homelessness, people living with HIV, sex work, and people who use drugs and advocate for alternatives to incarceration for people with these criminalized identities.
Identify ways in which you and your colleagues can advocate for people’s autonomy and increase the quality of life for people who engage in criminalized survival practices. How can you utilize your institutional power to support community led initiatives for safer outdoor spaces and drug decriminalization initiatives?
Donate to bail funds, like the Black Mamas Bailout.
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Last updated May 2021