Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Counter-Colonial Criminology : A Critique of Imperialist Reason
ISBN: 9781849641449
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Pluto Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: Social Science;

This book is about how the history of colonialism has shaped the definition of crime and justice systems not only in former colonies but also in colonialist countries. Biko Agozino argues that criminology in the West was originally tested in the colonies and then brought back to mother countries - in this way, he claims, the colonial experience has been instrumental in shaping modern criminology in colonial powers.



He looks at how radical critiques of mainstream criminology by critical feminist and postmodernist thinkers contribute to an understanding of the relationship between colonial experience and criminology. But he also shows that even critical feminist and postmodernist assessments of conventional criminology do not go far enough as they remain virtually silent on colonial issues.



Biko Agozino considers African and other postcolonial literature and contributions to counter colonial criminology, their originality, relevance and limitations. Finally he advocates a 'committed objectivity' approach to race-class-gender criminology investigations in order to come to terms with imperialistic and neo-colonialist criminology.