ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the historical development, typologies, experiences, and impacts of immigration detention in Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and the United States. It presents the relevance of immigration detention to the field of criminology, including the ways in which this form of incarceration is similar to and different from ‘traditional’ penal logics and institutions. Immigration detention is relevant to the field of criminology for a number of reasons. Most obviously, the intermingling of criminal justice and immigration policies and practices has reanimated penality at the precise moment that economic and other concerns over efficacy looked set to challenge it. Immigration detention challenges criminology, highlighting the relevance of race, gender, and postcolonialism to the study of security and governance. The extension of penal logics and practices to efforts to control global mobility makes immigration detention an important site for understanding contemporary responses to migration and crime.
