increased migration, and a growing population of people whose physical and mental health needs are not met—by labeling them a ‘crime problem’ caused by individual failure and immorality, often projected onto entire ‘dysfunctional’ communities and racial groups.”125 Both organized abandonment and criminalization exacerbate existing racial and gender disparities, as the state targets social welfare programs essential to the survival of people experiencing the highest poverty rates in the United States—Native women, Black women, Latinxs, and disabled people—and then criminalizes their efforts to
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