In the aftermath of austerity and amid growing instability and populist backlashes across Europe, the deepening inequalities and erosion of rights experienced by women and queer people call for renewed attention to gender and gender-based violence. Against this backdrop, it becomes pivotal to investigate how contemporary transfeminist groups not only resist oppression but also propose alternative visions of justice in front of gender-based violence. This research explores how transfeminist groups in Italy and Spain mobilize transformative justice to envision and practice justice beyond punishment. Originating from social movements advocating prison abolition and rooted in the Black feminist tradition, this concept advances a community‑based model of justice—recognizing how structural oppression fuels violence and striving to create inclusive, non‑violent communities. Situated at the intersection between gender studies, social movement studies, and critical criminology, this work examines how justice and transformative justice are understood and practiced within the transfeminist movement in Italy and Spain, with regard to gender-based violence, by unpacking three core dimensions: the framing of gender-based violence within transfeminist perspectives on justice; the solutions envisioned in relation to justice and transformative justice; and the extent to which transformative justice is practiced as an alternative to punitive approaches. Through a most-similar system design comparing transfeminist groups in Italy and Spain, this project covers the articulation of perspectives on justice within the transfeminist movement and examines the potential of transformative justice in rethinking collective action and the relation between social movements and justice. In doing so, it contributes to broader debates on feminist endurance and hope under conditions of crisis, by investigating alternatives to punitive systems as collective transformation, thus opening new horizons for radical democratic change.
