Counter-colonial criminology : a critique of imperialist reason / Biko Agozino ; with a foreword by Stephen Pfohl.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Agozino, Biko.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criminology.

Imperialism.

Physical Description:

xiv, 281 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, 2003.

Summary:

This book is about how the history of colonialism has shaped the definition of crime and justice systems in former colonies. 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 feminist and postmodernist thinkers contribute to understanding the relationship between colonial experience and criminology. But he also shows that both the feminist and the postmodernist critiques 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 to come to terms with imperialistic and neo-colonialist criminology.

Contents:

1. The Enlightenment and Euro-American Theories of the Judicial Process 13

Enlightened Retribution and Utilitarianism 16

The Rational Ideal Type and Orientalism 22

Whose Conscience is the Collective Conscience under Colonialism? 26

From the Micro-Physics of Power to the Bifurcation Thesis 35

2. From Determinism to Meaning: The Emergence of the Labelling Perspective 40

Theoretical and Historical Background 42

Symbolic Interactionism 44

Phenomenology and Labelling 45

The Power to Name as a Focus 46

An Assessment of the Labelling Perspective 47

3. From Societal Reaction to Questions of Power: From Labelling to Radical Criminology 50

From the Symbolic to the Structural 50

Back to Classical Marxism 51

A Critique of Critical Criminology 56

What is New about New Realism? 57

Realism, Neoclassicism and Sociological Determinism 58

The Examples of Counter-Colonial Criminology 60

4. Feminist Perspectives and Critical Criminology 63

Feminist Empiricism 64

Standpoint Feminism 66

Postmodern Feminism 72

5. Lesbian Rape: Maternal Metaphors for the Patriarchal State and International Conflict Resolution 75

The Literature of Rape 78

The Sisters Do It for Themselves 82

6. Poststructuralism and Positivism in Criminological Theory 92

7. Social Fiction Sui Generis: The Fairy Tale Structure of Criminological Theory 103

Tensions between Facticity and Validity 103

The Murder of Reality 108

The Fictional Character of Criminological Theory 110

8. Executive Lawlessness and the Struggle for Democracy in Africa 113

What is Crime and What is Punishment? 114

Democracy, Law and Order as Organised Violence 121

Realism, Authoritarianism and Decolonisation 130

Democracy as Redress for Victimised Society 134

9. Radical Criminology in African Literature 140

The Problem of Crime 141

What is Crime and What Causes Crime? 145

How is Law Related to Society? 150

How Should Society Respond to Offending Behaviour? 153

10. Committed Objectivity in Race-Class-Gender Research 157

Race-Class-Gender Identity in Research 161

Objectivity is not Positionlessness 163

The Example of the Institute of Race Relations 169

What is Committed Objectivity? 171

11. How Scientific is Criminal Justice? A Methodological Critique of Research on McCleskey v. Kemp and Other Capital Cases 173

The Case of McCleskey 174

Investigation and Adjudication as Research 176

Science has No Room for Finality 178

A Scientific Argument Against the Death Penalty 180

A Critique of Criminological Research on the Death Penalty 182

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Another Ken Saro-Wiwa? 187

Conclusion: How Scientific are Criminal Justice Sciences? 190

12. What is Institutionalised? The Race-Class-Gender Articulation of Stephen Lawrence 194

The Sociology of Institutionalisation 197

Institutionalised Racism-Sexism-Classism 202

A Letter from Harlem 204

Windrush: A Law and Social Justice Workshop 207

13. Criminal Records: The Toughest, the Police and the Thieves: The Policing of Peter Tosh and Popular Culture 214

'Everyone is talking about crime, crime, tell me who are the criminals' - Tosh 215

'I am wanted dred and alive, no place to hide' - Tosh 217

'Get up stand up, stand up for your rights' - Tosh and Marley 220

Conclusion: Groundings 223

Conclusion: Beyond Criminological Orientalism 228.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-265) and index.

ISBN:

074531886X

0745318851

OCLC:

51810854