Protection cannot become the preserve of the definable. We can and should protect the lives of those whom the state is unable to define. Particularly, when ‘definability’ reflects the knowledge and experiences of the mainstream, cisgender, heterosexual majority.

But how is this protection best achieved? What is or is not definable is not just a bureaucratic or definitional problem but is shaped by the underlying logics and power dynamics of the criminal legal system itself. That system was never designed to protect vulnerable people. It was designed to uphold existing social, economic and moral orders, including the protection of private property and upholding of racial, gender, sexual and disablist hierarchies.