Becoming again a war machine: Deleuze and Guattari's theory of state violence applied to hate crime and domestic violence

The anti-violence movement has embraced a strategy for confronting interpersonal violence through criminal justice legislation. This has led anti-violence activists to advocate for police enforcement and prison punishment. Turning against its roots in feminist activism, the conclusion to the movement demonstrates an over-coding of state violence on anti-violence interventions. As a critique, this article engages Deleuze and Guattari's theory of four regimes of violence to analyse how criminal justice reforms for survivors of violence result in an enactment of greater violence. With special attention to hate crimes and domestic violence, carceral and juridical assemblages provide the mechanics of the regime of state violence manifesting carceral feminism and homonationalism. As an alternative formation, reenvisioning the anti-violence movement as a war machine provides an abolitionist anti-violence praxis. Two concrete strategies emerge for this abolitionist anti-violence project: first, to support and protest for the release of imprisoned survivors of violence, and second, to develop alternative strategies for confronting violence within communities.