UNSAFE
The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash
Sarah Lamble
Haymarket Books (11 August 2026)
Trade paper • ISBN-13: 9798888906064 • US $19.95 • 5 in x 8 in • 288 pgs.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The fiercest battles over gender today aren’t just about identity or womanhood—but about punishment, fear, and control
The “gender wars” in Britain and beyond have been driven by a powerful and seductive narrative: that safety can be achieved through exclusion, surveillance, and the policing of difference. Punitive logics have gained momentum across the political spectrum, from ostensibly left feminist campaigns to far-right violence, fuelling a backlash against trans rights 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 solutions to safety always fail to address the root causes of harm and only deepen divisions within our communities.
But Unsafe is more than critique. Drawing on abolitionist feminism and insights from grassroots organizing, Lamble makes a principled case for a different vision: one where safety isn’t 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.
RIGHTS INFORMATION:
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