Indigenous Worlds and Criminological Exclusion: A Call to Reorientate the Criminological Compass

Abstract

Indigenous peoples, their cultures and territories, have been subjected to continuous victimisation, plunder and genocide throughout history—or at least ‘history’ as created by and written from the North. Since contact with colonisers, these many different peoples have suffered legal and illegal forms of direct, structural and symbolic violence. Meanwhile, criminology—the discipline concerned with studying instances of criminality, harm and victimisation—has largely remained untouched by or indifferent to serious crimes and systematic attacks that have increased mortality, denied rights and destroyed traditional ways of life. In this article, we first present a bibliographical analysis of relevant content in leading criminology journals. We then suggest a conceptual and theoretical basis for enhancing an ethical and non-colonial engagement with this underdeveloped field of work. We conclude, however, that to counter the under-representation of Indigenous explorations and contributors in criminology, a broader transformation of the discipline will be necessary.

Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, content in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Published: 2021-09-01
Pages:115 to 128
Section:Articles
Fetching Scopus statistics
Fetching Web of Science statistics
How to Cite
Goyes, D. R. and South, N. (2021) “Indigenous Worlds and Criminological Exclusion: A Call to Reorientate the Criminological Compass”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 10(3), pp. 115-128. doi: 10.5204/ijcjsd.1983.

Author Biographies

University of Oslo
 Norway

David Rodríguez Goyes is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, Norway. He holds a PhD in criminology from the University of Oslo, Norway. He is a lawyer by training, with postgraduate studies in criminal law and a masters in sociology. His main field of research is green criminology, with a focus on biopiracy and on Indigenous issues. His greatest contribution to the field is in the development of a Southern green criminology.

University of Essex; Queensland University of Technology
 United Kingdom

Nigel South is a Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, United Kingdom and Adjunct Professor, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Australia