Decolonization of Criminology and Justice (E-Journal)
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White Feminism and Carceral Industries: Strange Bedfellows or Partners in Crime and Criminology?
Full text linkIn this article, we examine the existing policy and academic literature on punitive responses to gender-based and family violence, focusing, in particular, on women’s police stations. Specialist women’s police stations have been a feature of policing in Argentina, Brazil, and other South American as well as Central American countries since the late 1980s. They are considered to be a phenomenon of ‘the global South’, having also been set up in some African and Asian countries including Sierra Leone and India. In this article, we critique research on women’s police stations as well as the public discourse within which women’s police stations are being proposed as a solution to domestic violence – looking at questions of research design, methodology, empiricism, ethics, and criminological claims to knowledge or ‘truth’. We reflect on the significant dangers posed by the potential transfer of women’s police stations to the Australian context, especially for sovereign Indigenous women and girls. Finally, we critique what we see as deep-seated contradictions and anomalies inherent in ‘southern theory’ and white feminist carceralism
The Advancement of Thug Criminology: Towards the Decolonization of ‘Street/Gang’ Research and Pedagogy
Full text linkThis paper presents a dialectical conversation between an insider/outsider vs insider/insider gang researcher, wherein a new criminology is advanced - Thug Criminology. In challenging current disciplinary accounts, we argue that: a) gang research has largely reinforced, maintained, and reified stereotypical views of ‘gangs’ and their behaviour; b) insider/insider gang researcher voices have not been privileged within academia; and c) those posited as ‘expert’ gang scholars, and whose knowledges have been accorded authority, are outsiders. As such, laws and practices, which negatively affect gang-involved populations, have been largely informed by an uncritical and unchallenged position of privilege. Thug Criminology seeks to create an academic space for insider ‘gang’ or street scholars to contribute to knowledge, policies, and practices that are less harmful to those who are targeted and deemed a threat
Walking while brown: A Critical Commentary on the New Zealand Police Extra-Legal Photographing and Surveillance of Rangatahi Māori
Full text linkA Critical Commentary on the New Zealand Police Extra-Legal Photographing and Surveillance of Rangatahi Māor
The 2020 Cannabis Referendum: Māori Voter Support, Racialized Policing, and the Criminal Justice System
Full text linkIn the New Zealand 2020 cannabis referendum, 50.7% of all voters rejected the creation of a legally-regulated cannabis market and instead supported retaining the current prohibitionist policy. Although the referendum failed to pass, a majority of Māori voted in favor of cannabis law reform. This paper suggests that within the Māori community there is a more nuanced appreciation of the impact of policing cannabis. Māori perceive that greater harm is caused by the racialized policing of cannabis than by the usage of it. Following McCreanor, et al. (2014), this paper employs a thematic, content analysis of the New Zealand Herald’s coverage of the 2020 cannabis referendum to investigate the presence of race-based targeting/policing in discussions of the legislation. The results reveal that racial disparities emerged as secondary to framing both the impact of cannabis and the referendum as race-neutral and affecting everyone in society equally. This paper argues that the impact of the policing of this particular drug impacts Māori differently, wherein they bear the brunt of racialized policing. Thus, Māori possess a more sophisticated understanding that warrants consideration because it is inextricably linked to lived experiences of policing that differ from wider social narratives of policing and drug policy in New Zealand.
 
Kitossa, T. (Ed.). (2021). Appealing because he is appalling: Black masculinities, colonialism, and erotic racism. University of Alberta Press.
Full text linkBrowne-Marshall, G. J. (2020). She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power 1619 to 1969. Routledge.
Full text linkThe Criminalization of the Cannabis Plant: Decolonizing the Harmful Enforcement
Full text linkThe paper examines the history and current state of cannabis-related laws and enforcement and argues for reformed policies. The history of cannabis laws has been used to control, punish, and oppress marginalized groups of people and reinforce the power structures that were established during colonial rule. The discriminatory policies have disproportionately especially hurt Black, Brown, and Indigenous people with harsh punishment for those who use the cannabis plant which has various medicinal, social, religious, cultural, and textile uses. The strict laws that criminalize cannabis harm society by enforcing an environment that empowers violent organized crime groups and pharmaceutical companies who profit off cannabis being illegal. Cannabis reform including decriminalization and legalization may be a viable option for many nations to consider as a harm reduction strategy
Decolonization and Restorative Justice: A Proposed Theoretical Framework.
Full text linkThe concept of decolonization has been used in numerous disciplines and settings, including education, psychology, governance, justice, transitional justice, restorative justice as well as research methods. Fanon (1963) saw decolonization as a process of both unlearning and undoing the harms of colonization. For Monchalin (2016), decolonization is both a goal and process to bring about a fundamental shift in colonial structures, ideologies and discourses. According to Alfred (2009, p. 185), decolonization requires “nation-to-nation partnership” for “justice and peace”. In the context of Restorative Justice (RJ), decolonization entail a) addressing historical harms of colonization; b) recognizing grievances of indigenous and marginalized communities about the justice system as genuine; and c) acknowledging that state- or INGO-funded RJ practices may do more harm than good. This paper begins with a brief overview of decolonization discourses from micro and macro perspectives to then locate decolonization in justice settings, arguing against “copying and pasting” Eurocentric models of RJ practices. Grounded in the findings of RJ visionaries and practitioners in Bangladesh and the work of Cunneen (2002), and Tauri and Morris (1997), this study proposes a decolonizing framework for RJ practices
