Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Social Research: An Internatinal Quarterly
Volume
92
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Prison abolitionism has gained significant prominence in criminal law scholarship, while artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across society. Two schools of thought have arisen regarding their intersection. Some scholars contend abolitionists should welcome AI technologies to reduce the carceral state’s reach. Critics view these tools skeptically, arguing that they lead to biased surveillance and incarceration practices. Using this debate as an example, this article seeks to illuminate the distinction between reformist and non-reformist reforms. The article argues that abolitionists’ criticism of reformists as agents of oppression risks alienating potential allies and discouraging progressive interventions in pivotal, formative policy decisions—including those governing the role of AI in the criminal justice system.
Recommended Citation
Youngjae Lee,
Abolitionism, Artificial Intelligence, and Non-Reformist Reform, 92 Soc. Rsch. Int'l Q. 1147
(2025-Winter)
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/1466
Comments
Social Research has its origins in the New School’s historic effort to provide intellectuals safe haven as the Nazis began to threaten Jewish scholars prior to the onset of WWII. This group of rescued scholars, known as the University in Exile, launched Social Research: An International Quarterly of the Political and Social Sciences in 1934 on the core conviction that every true university must have its own distinct public voice. Today, that profound voice resonates in each issue, as multidisciplinary scholars, writers, and experts take on contentious social issues, countries in transition, and phenomena that seem ripe for exploration. Periodic special issues are devoted to the proceedings of the journal’s renowned conferences at the New School.