Not Your Mama's Feminism: The Policy in Practice - The Softer Side of Criminalization

Somewhere along the way, criminalization learned a new language. What was once openly punitive is now framed as diversion, exit, or support. People are told they aren’t being punished - they’re being helped. But the help comes with conditions, and those conditions begin with arrest. The shift is rhetorical, not structural. The police still initiate the process, the courts still control the outcome, and freedom is still contingent on compliance.