ABSTRACT
This chapter examines certain Global South experiences and developments in penality of historical and contemporary significance. It discusses the importance of an historical sociology of punishment that looks beyond national borders and the nation state. The chapter considers the value of adopting an expansive view of penality that explicates close links with processes that have been formative in colonial rule and settler nation building. It demonstrates the need to eschew frameworks of analysis that examine penality in Global South countries as exemplars of penal narratives derived from developments in the Global North, and argues for the need for frameworks that instead attend to the specificities of Southern penalities. The chapter explains such forms of generalisation by examining developments in Global South settings, in particular Latin America, to underline the importance of seriously engaging with national, regional, and local difference and nuance in penal policy and practice.
