This anthology presents the work of academics from the Global South and examines from local and regional environments how the legal system and people`s perception of it translate into an understanding of what constitutes « criminal » behaviour or activity. This book aims to bridge the gap between criminal law in theory and practice in the Global South by compiling 11 chapters written by established and emerging scholars from various underrepresented regions of the world. On 8 and 9 July 2021, Pablo Ciocchini (University of Liverpool) and George Radics (National University of Singapore) brought together a group of researchers from the Global South to discuss the impact of criminal law in their respective contexts. On the first day of the workshop, the lectures revolved around the criminalization of fundamental rights, while on the second day, discussions focused on legitimizing state violence against subordinate groups. The lectures presented covered topics ranging from abortion to corruption to drug migration. Countries discussed included Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Singapore, while participants brought their thoughts and experiences from around the world to the workshop. Many of the observations that emerged during the workshop showed a deep respect for the rights of subordinates, the recognition of role models in the Global South, and reflected the urgent need to further investigate and hold accountable State crimes. While some of the works will be published in an upcoming anthology, a special edition will also be created from the articles. The organizers would like to thank all participants for their active and inspiring feedback and look forward to working with each of them to further develop their contributions for publication. For those who would like to know more about the workshop or future projects related to this group, please contact Pablo Ciocchini in P.Ciocchini@liverpool.ac.uk or George Radics in socrgb@nus.edu.sg. Based on research conducted in Singapore, the Philippines, Peru, Indonesia, India, the Dominican Republic, Burma, Brazil, Bangladesh and Argentina, this book explores a range of issues that cross the line between social deviation and legal crimes in these societies, including extramarital relations, gender-based violence, gambling, LGBT issues and corruption. The questions of inclusiveness versus exclusivity, modernity versus tradition, the globalization of capital versus cultural renewal are examined. The contributions critically examine the role of policy and institutions in shaping these topics.
There is an urgent need for empirical studies and new theoretical approaches that can capture the complexity of the criminal phenomena that occur in the countries of the South. This book will provide essential material to facilitate the development of new approaches better suited to understanding the social phenomena related to crime in these societies. This new book series aims to publish and promote new innovative research findings with a long-term perspective on improving cognitive justice and democratizing knowledge production. Among the subjects of interest from the point of view of the countries of the South are ecological and ecological plunder; gender-based violence; religion, war and terror; drug wars; the historical and contemporary legacy of slavery; contemporary legacies of injustice resulting from expropriation and colonization; penal systems and forms of customary or transitional justice; Violations of human rights and struggles for justice — all of this threatens the security of the peoples who inhabit the countries of the South. This list is not exhaustive, just an indication of the wide range of manuscripts sought. Proposals for manuscripts are requested that address the subject from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and areas of knowledge – history, social law studies, criminology, anthropology and sociology. Established scientists and young scientists are encouraged to submit proposals for written or edited volumes. While the publishers of the series are eager to solicit manuscripts from Latin America, Oceania and Africa, as the series aims to bridge global divisions, North-South co-authorship is also welcome around the world. This workshop covers traditional and modern approaches to exploring deviance. From Howard Becker`s influential book Outsiders (1963), which inspired a generation of scientists who wanted to study how deviant labels are socially constructed, to Alexander Liazos` call (1971) to go beyond the labels of « nuts, sluts and perverts » and return to an examination of the structural problems underlying such labels, this anthology takes up these approaches and addresses the questions that: which are discussed by contemporary researchers working on the countries of the South. Themes such as how knowledge is produced in the South (de Sousa Santos, 2014, 2018), law and disorder in the post-colony are understood and quantified (Comaroff and Comaroff, 2006), and the punishment of the poor in the South (Wacquant, 2009) are just some of the works that shape the theoretical framework of this book. These contemporary researchers cited have highlighted in particular the role of law in the countries of the South, a situation that is undoubtedly more complicated than in the countries of the North.
An explicit assumption of this workshop is that the nature and extent of the structural, organized and interpersonal violence under which criminal law operates in the Global South is different from the way it operates in the Global North. Comaroff and Comaroff argued that the economic and political changes undergone in the Global South have had « unintended and highly destabilizing effects on the fragile political and economic arrangements–on the ecologies of clientelism, redistribution, and survival—that developed in many southern nation-states with the end of the high age of colonialism. » (2006, 4).