Oxford University Publishes PJLC Chapter on Movement Lawyering

Oxford University Press has published a chapter by Peace and Justice Law Center founder Sean Garcia-Leys in the Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society, one of the most authoritative global references on gang policy, policing, and criminal justice. The chapter documents a successful community-led campaign to stop gang injunctions in the City of Placentia and presents a movement lawyering model that continues to shape PJLC’s work.

Titled “No Public Benefit: The Placentia Gang Injunction Opposition Campaign,” the chapter recounts work that predates the formal creation of PJLC. At the time, the effort was carried out by a collaborative of impacted community members, organizers, and public interest lawyers, including Sean Garcia-Leys and grassroots partners such as Chicanxs Unidxs, an organization PJLC continues to work closely with today. Together, this coalition organized residents, challenged prosecutors in court, and defeated two proposed gang injunctions brought by the Orange County District Attorney.

Gang injunctions are civil court orders that restrict everyday activities based on broad allegations of gang involvement, often without the protections of criminal court. The chapter explains how these tools have been widely criticized as ineffective, racially discriminatory, and harmful to community stability. It challenges the assumption that injunctions improve public safety simply because they exist, and instead highlights the role of community response, social integration, and grassroots peacemaking.

The chapter advances a movement lawyering approach that centers impacted people as leaders rather than passive clients. Legal strategy, organizing, and narrative work were developed in close partnership with families, organizers, and those directly targeted by gang enforcement. The chapter shows how this collaborative model defended civil liberties while contributing to reduced harm without relying on punitive policing.

By situating the Placentia campaign within the broader rise and decline of gang injunctions across California, the chapter provides important context for the legal and organizing principles that later informed PJLC’s founding. Publication in the Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society places this work within a national and international scholarly conversation on public safety, civil rights, and alternatives to gang suppression.

Readers interested in this history and in how these lessons continue to inform PJLC’s current litigation, policy advocacy, and movement support can follow future updates as this work evolves.