Decolonialising Criminology

Criminology 403

"...For criminology more specifically, its canon is as Western, white and male as any other social science discipline (Aas 2012; Bosworth and Hoyle 2011; Lee and Laidler 2013). The Westerncentrism of criminology is reflected in the fact that the most frequently cited criminologists are overwhelmingly white men from the USA and the UK (Cohn et al. 2017; Wright 2002; Wright et al. 2000). It is important to stress that the exclusion of non-Western scholarship in criminology is not because non-Western criminology does not exist. Indeed, Japanese, Chinese and Indian criminology is barely known in the West despite criminology having been well established in these countries for several decades (Belknap 2016: 253)"

This week we will consider the questions: What is decolonisation? How can decolonisation be framed in the context of Criminology's past? How can decolonisation be framed in the context of Criminology's future?