Reimagining the sociology of punishment through the global-south: postcolonial social control and modernization discontents

Abstract

Traditional theoretical accounts in the sociology of punishment largely overlook the situation of crime control and mass incarceration outside Western democracies. In this sense, their explanatory power has a limited reach. It is fundamental to engage with different contexts for expanding the scope of this transdisciplinary field, while also rethinking its foundational canons. By thinking through the global-south, the present argument advocates the development of a decentred perspective to punishment and crime control. In a two-pronged approach, the article argues that peripheral countries have attempted to modernize their criminal justice apparatuses, while social control in Western democracies has increasingly adopted postcolonial features. The aim is not only to expand this scholarship by encompassing more diversity, but also to refine existing accounts through insights from other realities.

Exceptional states: The political geography of comparative penology

“…Pratt and Eriksson, 2013) excludes post-colonial sites. We do not need to abandon the USA and England and Wales but would “decentre” them (Fonseca, 2018c), allowing for a new transnational context in which to consider penal patterns.…”

Public Caning: Should it Be Maintained or Eliminated? (A Reflection of Implementation Sharia Law in Indonesia)

“…Fonseca stated that outlying countries have tried to revolutionize their criminal justice devices, while community control in Western democracies has progressively implemented the post-colonial features. The purpose is not only to develop this legal thought by surrounding it with more multiplicity but also to improve the current accounts through visions from other realities (Fonseca, 2018;Garland, 2018;Savelsberg, 2018). Caning, as a part of corporal punishment, has also been debated by Rebellon and Straus.…”

Embodiments and frictions of statehood in transnational criminal justice

“…Still, however, Katja Franko notes that referrals to 'the state' in 'criminological scholarship almost without exception means the western state, mainly North American, UK, Australia, Western Europe, occasionally Russia, while examples of "lesser statehood" are far more seldom considered' (Aas, 2012: 15). This observation echoes criminological scholarship critiquing the implicit Global North centricity of the discipline that ignores colonial history and silences epistemologies from the Global South (Agozino, 2003;Carrington et al, 2015;Fonseca, 2018). Yet, the postcolonial critiques posed by the strands of 'southern' and 'Africana' criminology have not taken into account the theoretical discussion on statehood in the African studies literature, something we aim to remedy with this article.…”