Criminological and Social Theory and Methods, Settler Colonialism and the Indigenous Context

By the end of Chapter 12, you will be able to:

Interrogate the relationship between colonialism and criminology

Understand and explain the importance of decolonising criminological and social theory and methods

Identify ways to decolonise criminological and social theory and methods

Examine settler colonialism and the settler state in the Indigenous context

Apply your understanding to case studies

In this chapter, we interrogate the relationship between colonialism and criminology. This involves an examination of the discipline’s colonial heritage: how criminological logic is implicated in imperialism and the colonial project. A critique of mainstream criminological theory and methods is central to our discussion. This chapter focuses mainly on the knowledge, experiences and worldviews of Indigenous peoples acknowledging that imperialism shaped these trajectories. We start with Nigerian criminologist and scholar-activist Onwubiko (Biko) Agozino (1961–) whose theory-work interrogates the relationship between colonialism and criminology. The origins of criminology are explored, that is the discipline’s roots in the Western discourse of modernity. Agozino offers counter-colonial criminology as a postcolonial approach to criminological theory and praxis.