Decolonising Criminology: Syed Hussein Alatas on Crimes of the Powerful

Abstract

Like the rest of the social sciences, criminology is dominated by Western scholars, literature and perspectives. This Westerncentrism of criminology means that non-Western criminological scholarship has largely been marginalised or ignored. This article contributes toward the ongoing efforts to decolonise criminology by arguing that the Malaysian intellectual, Syed Hussein Alatas , is worthy of greater inclusion in criminological research and teaching due to his pioneering scholarship. More specifically, Alatas deserves greater recognition within the criminological subfield of 'crimes of the powerful', an area within criminology which has been at the forefront of challenging the criminological status quo but which remains somewhat parochial. This article introduces Alatas' most notable works and explains their relevance for contemporary criminology.

Criminology: Some lines of flight

“…Concerns about the exclusion of diverse knowledges have emerged as a pervasive feature of contemporary criminological thought. This is reflected in the emergence of a major body of thought focused on shifting thinking and developments emanating from the 'Global South', from the 'periphery' and the 'semi-periphery' (Lee & Laidler, 2013;Medina, 2011;Moosavi, 2019), to the centre of the criminological stage. These have included: a 'counter-colonial criminology' (Agozino, 2003(Agozino, , 2020Kitossa, 2012); a 'neo-colonial' criminology (Deckert, 2014); an 'indigenous' criminology (Cunneen & Tauri, 2016;Tauri, 2017); a 'southern' criminology and a 'green southern' criminology (Carrington et al, 2016, 2018, Carrington, Dixon et al, 2019Carrington, Hogg et al, 2019;Goyes, 2019); a 'postcolonial' criminology (Cunneen, 2011;Medina, 2011); along with more regionally-based criminologies, such as Asian (Lee & Laidler, 2013;Liu, 2009, Liu et al, 2013, African (Alemika, 2020;Chukwuma, 2011;Dixon, 2001Dixon, , 2004Ebbe, 2011;van Zyl Smit, 1999), Latin American (Del Olmo, 1999;Escobar, 2011;Heskia, 2011;Juarez & Solares, 2011;Rodrigues, 2011;Schulte-Bockholt, 2012) as well as a criminology of the Arab world (Ouassini & Ouassini, 2020).…”

“Can East Asian Students Think?”: Orientalism, Critical Thinking, and the Decolonial Project

“…This tendency may also be found in academic publications that are written by East Asian scholars who may perpetuate the narrative that East Asian students have a tenuous relationship with critical thinking. Thus, "the Westerncentrism that dominates the social sciences is not just a result of Western academics' insularity but is also due to non-Western academics' acquiescence" [61] (p. 233). At times, this can be offered in tones that are possibly even more enthusiastic than can be found in scholarship produced by non-East Asians, as the examples below may illustrate:…”

Cripping criminology

“…It is so normalized in our theoretical work that it is difficult to imagine otherwise, even for critical criminologists. 3 The tasks of decolonizing (Blagg, 2016; Cunneen and Tauri, 2016; Moosavi, 2019), greening (South, 2017; White, 2016), and queering (Ball, 2016; Buist and Lenning, 2015) criminology have provided the discipline with alternative frames of reference, and sought to decentre the privileged position of white abled cishet 4 readings of crime and criminality.…”