Reimagining Health Equity in the Face of State-Sanctioned Violence

For decades, systemic violence has significantly impacted public health outcomes. This violence operates via many mechanisms, including policing, incarceration, an inequitable healthcare system, disposition from traditional lands, all of which disproportionately affect marginalized communities worldwide. Recent studies have deepened our understanding of how these violent structures shape health disparities, but there is a growing need for an abolitionist perspective to proactively address these issues from a root-cause analysis. While research has increasingly shown the relationship between state-sanctioned violence and these harms, there still appears to be a hesitation within the more dominant discipline to explore a broader set of strategies towards addressing state-sanctioned violence. Specifically, abolition is one of these public health approaches that is urgently needed to move us beyond reformist solutions and towards solutions that confront these systems at their roots.

Abolitionist approaches are strategies and philosophies aimed at dismantling (not just reforming) systems of oppression, which are inextricably linked to policing and control. These approaches focus on creating alternative systems grounded in community care, transformative justice, and social equity, envisioning a world where harm is addressed without reliance on punitive institutions.

This Research Topic aims to explore how abolitionist frameworks can be applied to public health for the purpose of rethinking what is needed, reshaping policies, and restructuring existing systems to improve health outcomes. It seeks to answer pivotal questions around the societal structures that propagate violence and inequality: How can public health integrate abolitionist principles? What role does state-sanctioned violence play in perpetuating health disparities and inequities? Through a global lens, this collection invites contributions that can expand dialogue and propose actionable strategies that challenge these entrenched and interconnected systems. We encourage submissions that challenge dominant discourse, paradigms, and illuminate the connections and factors between systems and factors outside the formal public health and biomedical contexts that impact health

To gather further insights into these dynamics, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes, across domestic and international contexts:

• The impact of policing and incarceration on health outcomes

• Abolitionist approaches to reimagining public health systems and practices

• Case studies of abolitionist public health initiatives

• The role of state policies in perpetuating health inequities

• Cross-cultural and international perspectives on dismantling structural violence driving health inequities