Reflections on the Ethical Possibilities and Limitations of Abolitionist Praxis in Social Work

Abstract

Since 2020, blatant forms of state violence within the United States have reignited attention in the field of social work, where numerous calls have been made to realign and reconsider our standing ethical values and principles. Individually, social workers are beginning to reckon with the field's role within the carceral ecosystem and reimagining practice outside the confines of the carceral state. Institutionally, however, social work's professional organizations have reacted in contradictory ways. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in particular has been overtly inconsistent; touting support for racial justice while also broadcasting long-standing support for and partnerships with police. Furthermore, the NASW purportedly upholds a set of professional ethics and values that center social justice while also supporting tactics that surveil and criminalize marginalized communities. This disconnect between espoused ethics and actuality of practice undermines the professional legitimacy of social work. The profession must either acknowledge the current Code of Ethics as performative or take action to bring practice into alignment with professed ethics that affirm abolitionist practices. Using institutional social work statements, this article presents a conceptual exploration of the ethical potentials and limitations of abolitionist praxis in social work, culminating with a call to action.

The stark implications of abolishing child welfare: An alternative path towards support and safety

“…From this perspective, mandatory reporting and state responses to maltreatment allegations are conceptualized as criminalizing rather than protecting children and families, with CWS thus functioning as a major component of America's carceral ecosystem (e.g. Bergen & Abji, 2020;Murray et al, 2023).…”

Abolition and the Welfare State: Implications for Social Welfare

“…As the politics of abolition spread across the United States and abroad, a marginal but visible, and growing number of social workers have taken up the mantle, struggling against police collaboration, against the child welfare system or family policing, against incarceration, and against what is now recognized as carceral social work (Dettlaff, 2022(Dettlaff, , 2023Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work [NAASW], 2022;Jacobs et al, 2021). Yet, the welfare state and welfare policy, areas of study and practice for which the professional bodies and educational and scholarly institutions of social work have long laid claim, have received limited attention from practitioners and scholars of abolition.…”

“…Despite the persistence of a small strand of social workers and social work scholars in the continued analysis of the punitive functions of social work, neoliberalism's hold across the field and the elevation of individualized, clinical forms of social work hid its disciplining functions under the platitudes of social work's commitment to professionalism and a nebulous notion of social justice (Jacobs et al, 2021;NAASW, 2022). More recent attention to the disciplining nature of social work as an arm of the system of social/public assistance, child welfare, and other regulating systems of care has unearthed radical traditions in social work and built upon more recent praxis and scholarship that both critiques social work and points to abolitionist possibilities (Jacobs et al, 2021;Dettlaff, 2023;Murray et al, 2023;Roberts, 2022).…”

A New World Cannot be Built Alone: An Abolitionist Framework for Collective Action in Social Work

“…Similarly, the CSWE Educational and Policy Accreditation Standards (EPAS) (CSWE, 2022) outline nine competencies that social work programs must ensure their students meet in order to be accredited programs within the United States. While we hold these documents alongside a critique of the profession's failings to meaningfully embody some of their principles (Murray et al, 2023), we also take social work at its own word and use this document as a guide for our analysis about the social work academy's response in this current political moment.…”

“…While this condemnation is preferable to silence, in failing to provide meaningful guidance to programs that we argue cannot presently ensure that they are meeting CSWE accreditation standards, the CSWE is failing to support sound social work education and practice in the aforementioned states. This represents the ongoing failure of social work education and practices to meaningfully reflect our ethical standards (Murray et al, 2023;BlackDeer & Ocampo, 2022;Bisman, 2004) and must be addressed if social work as a profession intends to meaningfully embody the values we state are our core.…”