Refusing deterrence

Bibliographic Data

ID3607602
AuthorsMalene H Jacobsen (0000-0002-0494-3642), Rhys Machold (0000-0002-9842-392X)
Year2025
Pages1-18
Publication date2025-01-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2024.2441604
OpenAlexW4406673812
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited48

In this article, we offer a conceptual provocation that seeks to reframe critical engagement with migration ‘deterrence’. While scholars have illustrated how deterrence policies and practices within migration governance do not necessarily work as advertised, they have rarely interrogated deterrence as such. Responding to this gap, we mobilize the method of critical juxtaposing to examine the historical and etymological origins of deterrence as a concept and set of practices. We bring together insights from critical criminology, political geography, and critical border studies to better apprehend what deterrence is and does in the world. We argue that deterrence must be understood as a form of public terror, foundational to modern states and relations of accumulation under racial capitalism. Rather than reproduce common-sense logic, language and violence of deterrence, we call for the need to refuse deterrence. In doing so, this article contributes to broader projects of police and border abolition

Criminology · Deterrence (psychology · Political science · Sociology · Global Security and Public Health · Law

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