Exporting criminological innovation abroad: Discursive representation, ‘evidence-based crime prevention’ and the post-neoliberal development agenda in Latin America

Abstract

The aim of this article is to stimulate a critical dialogue about the implications of northern criminologists working to promote their research abroad. It accounts for why attempts to generate impact on an international scale may prove problematic and illustrates potential pitfalls by analysing the content and discourses featured in a toolkit for evidence-based crime prevention developed for the Inter-American Development Bank in 2012. The example prompts important and timely questions about the practical and discursive implications of northern attempts to influence policy and practice in the South. The article concludes by accounting for the importance of reflexivity as a strategy for limiting this harm-generating potential and for fostering discursively representative policy deliberations.

“A grandes cautelas, otras mayores”: importing neoliberal criminal justice policies and practices into chile

“…One final item should be addressed as a worthy cautionary note. Blaustein (2016aBlaustein ( , 2016b warns us that so many of the northern "solutions" for crime prevention that have been introduced in South American countries lack a number of key criteria (especially knowledge of the local terrain) and that is why they ultimately fail. More specifically, through an analysis of the plan developed by the well-known American criminologist Larry Sherman to introduce evidence-based crime prevention in Latin America (with the cooperation of the Inter-American Development Bank), Blaustein identifies several flaws in the thinking surrounding this plan.…”

Researching cross-national policy mobilities in crime control

“…More recently, this form of mechanism, in combination with aspects of those described under coercion' below, has been seen as an active feature of the transfer of Northern' approaches to crime reduction, policing, and justice reform: crime and insecurity have become defined by international financial organizations and donor countries as important obstacles to the promotion of economic growth in developing countries. 31…”

Interpreting the Development and Growth of Convict Criminology in South America

“…See, for example, https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/sub-regions/south-america/. 4 See, for example, Blaustein's (2016) analysis of western criminologists coming to Latin America as consultants dispensing advice.…”