Neo-colonial penality? Travelling penal power and contingent sovereignty

Abstract

The article explores the relevance of neo-colonial theory for criminology, and its contribution to understanding why and how penal policy and models travel from the global North to the global South. An empirical example is employed to review arguments for and against ‘penal neo-colonialism’ and to tease out the theory’s strengths and limitations; namely the European Union’s ‘penal aid’ to shape West African countries’ penal policies and practices to stop illicit flows and irregular mobility to Europe. The article further discusses neo-colonial theory’s concepts of agency, power and sovereignty by comparing them to similar poststructuralist perspectives on the ‘contingent sovereignty’ of ‘governance states’. Moreover, by drawing on a theoretical discussion on statehood in African studies, it looks at how the sovereignty of African states has been conceptualized as hollowed out ‘from above’ as well as ‘from below’. In doing so, the article contributes to a recent criminological debate that has problematized the relationship between (travelling) penal power and state sovereignty.

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).…”

Carceral domesticity as containment of troubled families in Santiago, Chile

“…The introduction of carceral management methods targeting marginalized populations has necessitated the establishment of alliances with local economic and political elites for their successful deployment (Stambøl, 2021). This process has augmented their influence and stake in the gains of an unequal global order, with consequences that reverberate at the local level.…”

Multilateralism, Developmental Regionalism, and the African Development Bank

“…However, Africa has continued to be dependent on multilateral donors such as the World Bank and the IMF, whose aid has become conditioned in the post-Cold War era in the context of structural adjustment programs (Dunning, 2004). For many African governments and the public, these conditionalities are interpreted as a form of neo-colonialism (Stambøl, 2021). African governments through the 2019 Dakar Consensus, for instance, highlight that the debt risk of the continent is not higher than that of other regions, thus such concerns should not be used by global multilateral lenders to push African governments into implementing structural adjustment programs that are insensitive to the needs of the continent by undermining long-term development (d'Albis et al, 2021).…”