Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash

Lamble, Sarah

ISBN 13: 9798888906064

Published by Haymarket Books, 2026

About this Item

From the publisher: The fiercest battles over gender today aren?t just about identity or womanhood?but about punishment, fear, and control.

The twenty-first century ?gender wars? have been driven by a powerful and seductive narrative: that safety can be secured through exclusion, surveillance, and the policing of difference. These punitive logics have gained momentum across the political spectrum, fueling an anti-trans backlash and distorting the meaning of safety itself.

Unsafe is a clear-eyed and decisive challenge to the toxic ideas at the heart of this backlash. With patient rigour, Lamble exposes how carceral approaches to safety fail to address root causes of harm, ultimately deepening social divisions and legitimising new forms of violence and control.

Drawing on feminist and queer traditions as well as their experience organizing against prisons and policing, Lamble makes a principled case for a different vision: one where safety is not built on punishment but on collective care, radical solidarity, and transformative justice.

Seller Inventory # UNS-6064

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash
• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798888906064
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 12.9W x 19.79H x 5.08D centimeters 12.9 centimeters width by 19.79 centimeters height by 5.08 centimeters depth
• Weight: 0.485 pounds
• Seller catalogs:
  • Queer and Feminist Writing
  • Prison Abolition
  • Criminology & Penal Reform / Prison Studies

About this title

Synopsis

The fiercest battles over gender today aren’t just about identity or womanhood―but about punishment, fear, and control.

The twenty-first century “gender wars” have been driven by a powerful and seductive narrative: that safety can be secured through exclusion, surveillance, and the policing of difference. These punitive logics have gained momentum across the political spectrum, fueling an anti-trans backlash and distorting the meaning of safety itself.

Unsafe is a clear-eyed and decisive challenge to the toxic ideas at the heart of this backlash. With patient rigour, Lamble exposes how carceral approaches to safety fail to address root causes of harm, ultimately deepening social divisions and legitimising new forms of violence and control.

Drawing on feminist and queer traditions as well as their experience organizing against prisons and policing, Lamble makes a principled case for a different vision: one where safety is not built on punishment but on collective care, radical solidarity, and transformative justice.

About the Author

Lamble is a community organizer and Professor of Criminology and Queer Theory at Birkbeck, University of London. Their work explores questions of gender, sexuality, and justice with a focus on feminist and abolitionist alternatives to prisons, police, and punishment. They are based in London.