Abolitionism, Curb-Cutting, and Professional Integrity
A Meta-Model for Advancing Social Work Ethics, Values Education & Research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/28427Keywords:
abolition, curb-cutting, social work education, social work practiceAbstract
This article presents curb-cutting as an abolitionist approach capable of organizing and guiding social work’s efforts to better ensure professional integrity across its public pronouncements, research, ethics, values, and educational practices. As an abolitionist approach, curb-cutting remains unfixed in its application, which allows it to be applied to a wide range of topics and professional domains. This includes but is not limited to, issues of race, gender, ability status, economics, pedagogy, practice, research, and service delivery. Conversely, this essay explores how curb-cutting, as a form of abolitionism, can be incorporated into social work to better support the identification and amelioration of contradictory practices and ideological assumptions while simultaneously encouraging the development, implementation, and assessment of potentially more effective conceptualizations and processes.
References
Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New Press.
Baldwin, J. (2010). The cross of redemption: Uncollected writings (R. Kenan, Ed.). Vintage Books.
Bell, D. (2004). The Derrick Bell reader. New York University Press.
Blackwell, A. G. (2017). The curb-cut effect. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 15(1), 28-33. https://doi.org/10.48558/YVMS-CC96
Bryant, D., & Kolivoski, K. M. (2021). The stories we tell: Examining the persistence and impacts of normative whiteness and White supremacy within social work education. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), 481-499. https://doi.org/10.18060/24158
Ben-Moshe, L. (2020). Decarcerating disability: Deinstitutionalization and prison abolition. University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv10vm2vw
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books.
Bouchard, D. F. (Ed.). (1977). Language counter-memory and practice: Selected essays and interviews by Michel Foucault. Cornell University Press.
Butler, P. (2020). The system is working the way it is supposed to: The limits of criminal justice reform. The Freedom Center Journal, 2019(1), 75-134. https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/fcj/vol2019/iss1/6/
Council on Social Work Education [CSWE]. (2022). 2022 educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master's social work programs. Author. https://www.cswe.org/getmedia/bb5d8afe-7680-42dc-a332-a6e6103f4998/2022-Educational-Policy-and-Accreditation-Standards-(EPAS).pdf
CSWE. (2024). Prepare for your education: Social work education at a glance. Author. https://www.cswe.org/students/prepare-for-your-education/
Davis, A. Y. (2003). Are prisons obsolete? Seven Stories Press.
Davis, A. Y. (2005). Abolition democracy: Beyond empire, prisons, and torture. Seven Stories Press.
Danforth, S. (2025). An independent man: Ed Roberts and the fight for disability rights. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520412651
Dennett, D. C. (2015). Elbow room: The varieties of free will worth wanting (New ed.). MIT Press. (Original work published 1984) https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10470.001.0001
Detlaff, A., & Copeland, V. (Eds.). (2023). Abolitionist perspectives on social work. University of Houston. https://apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw
Duarte, F. (2017). Reshaping political ideology in social work: A critical perspective. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 29(2), 34-44. https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol29iss2id282
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2017). Black reconstruction in America: An essay toward a history of the part which Black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880. Routledge. (Original work published 1935) https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315147413
Duhaney, P., & El-Lahib, Y. (2021). The politics of resistance from within: Dismantling White supremacy in social work classrooms. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), 421-437. https://doi.org/10.18060/24471
Fanon, F. (1965). A dying colonialism (H. Chevalier, Trans.). Grove Press. (Original work published 1959)
Floyd-Thomas, S. M. (Ed.). (2006). Deeper shades of purple: Womanism in religion and society. New York University Press.
Folter, R. (1986). On the methodological foundation of the abolitionist approach to the criminal justice system: A comparison of the ideas of Hulsman, Mathiesen, and Foucault. Contemporary Crises, 10, 39-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00728495
Foucault, M. (1965). Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason (R. Howard, Trans.). Random House. (Original work published 1961).
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). Pantheon Books. (Original work published 1969).
Moch, M. (2009). A critical understanding of social work by Paolo Freire: Social Workers World Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, July 30, 1988. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 20(1), 92-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428230902878285
Gilmore, R. W. (2007). Golden gulag: Prisons, surplus, crisis, and opposition in globalizing California. University of California Press.
Grand Challenges for Social Work. (2020). Just society: Eliminate racism. Author.https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/eliminate-racism/
Gorz, A. (1967). Strategy for labor. Beacon Press.
Gregory, J. (2021). Toward accountable critical whiteness curriculum for social work. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), 616-635. https://doi.org/10.18060/24094
Harney, S., & Moten, F. (2013). The undercommons: Fugitive planning and Black study. Autonomedia.
Hayek, F. A. (1978). The constitution of liberty. University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1960)
Heidegger, M. (1982). The basic problems of phenomenology (A. Hofstadter, Trans.). Indiana University Press. (Original work published 1975).
Hill, E., Tiefenthäler, A., Triebert, C., Jordan, D., Willis, H., & Stein, R. (2020, May 31). 8 minutes and 46 seconds: How George Floyd was killed in police custody. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html.
Hulsman, L., & Bernat de Célis, J. (2023). Pain in vain: Penal abolition and the legacy of Louk Hulsman (J. Piché & J. Hulsman, Trans.). Red Quill Books. (Original work published 1982).
James, W. (1975). Pragmatism and the meaning of truth. Harvard University Press. (Original works published 1907 and 1909)
Jones, C. P. (2000). Levels of racism: A theoretic framework and a gardener's tale. American Journal of Public Health, 90(8), 1212-1215. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.90.8.1212
Kaba, M. (2021). We do this 'til we free us: Abolitionist organizing and transforming justice. Haymarket Books.
Karakatsanis, A. (2019). The punishment bureaucracy: How to think about "criminal justice reform". In Usual cruelty: The complicity of lawyers in the criminal injustice system (pp. 13-98). The New Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.26193203.4
Kim, J. J. (2025). The licensed social work workforce: Analyses of the 2024 Social Work Workforce Survey (2024 Social Work Workforce Study Series, Report 2). Association of Social Work Boards. https://swcensus.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Social-Work-Workforce-Study-Series-Report-2.pdf
Lorde, A. (2020). The selected works of Audre Lorde (R. Gay, Ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
Lubben, J. E., Barth, R. P., Fong, R., Flynn, M. L., Sherraden, M., & Uehara, E. (2018). Grand challenges for social work and society. In R. Fong, J. E. Lubben, & R. P. Barth (Eds.), Grand challenges for social work and society (pp. 1-17). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190858988.003.0001
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1942). The selected correspondence of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: 1846-1895 (D. Torr, Trans.). International Publishers. (Original work published 1934).
Mathiesen, T. (1974). The politics of abolition (Scandinavian studies in criminology, Vol. 4). Martin Robertson. https://doi.org/10.18261/8200093433
Mathiesen, T. (1980). Law, society, and political action: Towards a strategy under late capitalism. Academic Press.
McKittrick, K. (Ed.). (2015). Sylvia Wynter: On being human as praxis. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822375852
McLeod, A. M. (2019). Envisioning abolition democracy. Harvard Law Review, 132(6), 1613-1649. https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1613-1649_Online.pdf
Mead, L. M. (1986). Beyond entitlement: The social obligations of citizenship. Free Press.
Murray, C. (1985). Losing ground: American social policy, 1950-1980. Basic Books.
Needham, C. (2011). Personalizing public services: Understanding the personalization narrative. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781847427601.001.0001
Newton, H. P. (1973). Revolutionary suicide. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Newton, H. P. (2009). To die for the people: The writings of Huey P. Newton. City Lights Publishers.
Newton, H. P. (2011). The Huey P. Newton reader (D. Hilliard & D. Weise, Eds.). Seven Stories Press.
Myers, J. (2023). Of Black study. Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv36cj867
National Association of Social Workers [NASW]. (2017). NASW code of ethics. Author. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English
NASW. (2021). Code of ethics. Author. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics
Nietzsche, F. (1966). Beyond good and evil: Prelude to a philosophy of the future (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1886)
Pageau, M. (2018). The language of creation: Cosmic symbolism in Genesis: A commentary. Pageau & Pageau.
Peirce, C. S. (1955). Philosophical writings of Peirce (J. Buchler, Ed.). Dover Publications. (Original work published 1940).
Prison Research Education Action Project. (1976). Instead of prisons: A handbook for abolitionists. Author. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/prison-research-education-action-project-instead-of-prisons
Reid, W. (2020, June 20). Black Lives Matter: Social work must respond with action - not platitudes. Community Care. https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2020/06/12/black-lives-matter-social-work-must-respond-action-platitudes/
Rousseau, J.-J. (1968). The social contract (M. Cranston, Trans.). Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1762)
Sato, M. (2020, August). Social workers are rejecting the calls for them to replace police. The Appeal. https://theappeal.org/social-workers-are-rejecting-calls-for-them-to-replace-police/
Shaw, G. B. (1928). The intelligent woman's guide to socialism and capitalism. Brentano's.
Sinha, M. (2016). The slave's cause: A history of abolition. Yale University Press.
Snowden, F., Tolliver, W., & McPherson, A. (2021). Needing, kneading, and eating Black bodies: The history of social work and its concern for Black citizenship in the United States. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), 217-240. https://doi.org/10.18060/24469
Society for Social Work & Research. (2020, March 17). Racism: The 13th grand challenge for social work [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVm-vay7jcg&t=1439s
Sowell, T. (2011). Intellectuals and society. Basic Books.
Sowell, T. (2023). Social justice fallacies. Basic Books.
Spade, D. (2012). The only way to end racialized gender violence in prisons is to end prisons: A response to Russell Robinson's "Masculinity as prison". California Law Review, 3, 184-196. https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1125166/files/fulltext.pdf
Tanner, M. D. (2003). The poverty of welfare: Helping others in civil society. Cato Institute.
Taylor, D. B. (2021, November 5). George Floyd protests: A timeline. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-protests-timeline.html
Tedam, P., & Came, T. (2022). "We started talking about race and racism after George Floyd": Insights from research into practitioner preparedness for anti-racist social work practice in England. Critical and Radical Social Work, 10(2), 260-279. https://doi.org/10.1332/204986022X16547711540394
Virginia Commonwealth University. (n.d.). Empowerment theory in social work. VCU Online Social Work. https://onlinesocialwork.vcu.edu/blog/empowerment-theory-in-social-work/
Vitale, A. S. (2017). The end of policing. Verso Books.
Washburn, A. M., & Grossman, M. (2017). Being with a person in our care: Person-centered social work practice that is authentically person-centered. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 60(5), 408–423. https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2017.1348419
Wright, K. C., Carr, K. A., & Akin, B. A. (2021). The whitewashing of social work history: How dismantling racism in social work education begins with an equitable history of the profession. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), 274-297. https://doi.org/10.18060/23946
Yale University. (2020, June 5). Yale leadership addresses the murder of George Floyd and the legacy of racist violence. Author. https://faculty.yale.edu/news/yale-leadership-addresses-murder-george-floyd-and-legacy-racist-violence
Yearwood, C. C., Barbera, R., Fisher, A., & Hostetter, C. (2021). Dismantling white supremacy in social work education: We build the road by walking. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), i-vii. https://doi.org/10.18060/25652
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Danté D. Bryant, Sonyia Richardson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
