Mapping the Pains of Neo-Colonialism: A Critical Elaboration of Southern Criminology

Abstract

Recent appeals to decolonize criminology argue for a radical reorientation of the subject towards Global South relevant research agendas, theories and scholars. This paper begins by problematizing the current theoretical tendencies in Southern criminology’s view of coloniality and the vision for decolonization. First, Southern criminology has not directly engaged in investigating ‘empire’ in its current form; second, decolonization is viewed as primarily epistemological (transforming systems of knowledge production is seen as the central mode for decolonization); and, third, there is a tendency to reify Southern institutional responses to crime as preferable to Northern crime control. Launching from this critique, we argue that a successful Southern criminology should take seriously the continuing importance of structures of neo-colonialization: the Global system of accumulation founded on various matrixes of inequality, facilitating dispossession, appropriation and exploitation. We develop three criminological analyses of contemporary neo-colonization in Global South contexts: state-corporate ‘regimes of permission’, political economies of gender violence and racialization through criminalization regimes.

Leveraging identity to overcome temporal and financial limitations in rapid ethnography in criminological research

“…The intersection and interaction of identities are often keys to understanding the strategic choices and tradeoffs individuals make to shape the world around them. The restoration of agency to individuals through ethnography is particularly valuable for research subjects in the Global South, where subjects are easily "othered" through a neo-colonial academic lens that undermines both the research and the respondents' human dignity (Ciocchini & Greener, 2021). Two of the three studies considered in this article were conducted in the Global South.…”

No Country For ‘Bad’ Men: Volatile Citizenship and the Emerging Features Of Global Neo-colonial Penality

“…The notion of neo-colonial penality has so far been notably examined as either a matter of the detrimental effects of global processes on crime and justice issues in the former colonies, or as penal power that 'travels' (Stambol 2021) from the Global North to South. Significant efforts have recently been invested 'to interrogate critically the impact of colonialism in the past and present of institutions and practices of crime control, both at the central and peripheral contexts' (Aliverti et al 2021: 298) leading to the identification of, for example, the neo-colonial aspects of global political economy which create serious socio-economic problems and forms of oppression in the Global South (Ciocchini and Greener 2021). For instance, humanitarian 'penal aid' that allows for the transfer of criminally convicted foreign offenders (and irregular migrants) from countries such as the United Kingdom, has allowed 'penal power to move beyond the nation state' (Bosworth 2017: 40).…”

A “lifeline out of the COVID‐19 crisis”? An ecofeminist critique of the European Green Deal

“…Noted above, the necessary natural resources for green‐tech are found mainly outside of Europe, where the most visible and immediate pollution and environmental destruction seems to fall under an out‐of‐sight‐out‐of‐mind stratagem. There is a growing literature that exposes the links between extraction and its roots in colonial plunder and which has intensified the dynamics of neo‐colonial exploitation, environmental/green/climate colonialism and eco‐imperialism (see Atiles‐Osoria, 2014; Ciocchini & Greener, 2021; Crosby, 1986; Jerez & Garcés, 2021; Nelson, 2002; Meiksins Wood, 2005; Mattei & Nader, 2008; Whyte, 2020). Climate colonialism is intricately tied to green capitalism, which “… ignores the fact that it is [the present power structures of capitalist, colonialist, and patriarchal ways of thinking] that have led to the ecological and social crisis, as well as the deeply intertwined nature of environmental and social aspects” (Wiese, 2021, p. 48).…”