Introduction to Special issue: Brazilian Criminology in the 21st Century

This article introduces the special issue “Brazilian Criminology in the 21st Century” that is composed of seven studies of contemporary security problems and related public security initiatives in Brazil. They are multidisciplinary contributions employing a large variety of methods, written by researchers based on Brazilian universities or research executed in cooperation with international colleagues. This is a unique and valuable reference source for researchers interested in Brazilian and Latin American security challenges as well as attempts to address them. By recognizing current barriers in knowledge production and sharing, the special issue calls for the creation of new opportunities for joint knowledge from the “criminologies” of the Global South and those from the Global North, befitting an inclusive global criminology worthy of the 21st century.

The Oxford Textbook on Criminology

This book is the essential companion to exploring crime and criminal justice. It provides authoritative yet accessible coverage of all key topics of criminology, with a vibrant, student-focused approach that converts curiosity into critical analysis and students into criminologists. Its full coverage of today’s most pressing criminological issues includes chapters on global criminology (exploring organised crime, drug trafficking, people smuggling, cybercrime, and terrorism), social harm, and green criminology. The book also provides practical, focused guidance on beginning criminological studies and applying criminological knowledge to research, careers, and further study. The authors’ explanations are continually brought to life by the voices and experiences of a wide variety of people connected to criminology and the criminal justice system, from students and academics to prison officers and crime victims.

13. Global criminology 1

This chapter presents an overview of global criminology, introducing the overarching theme and concept of globalisation and drawing comparisons between crime and justice in different countries. Today, criminologists who research other parts of the world increasingly turn to international definitions of crime, and international understanding of the causes of crime and the effectiveness and legitimacy of the various forms of crime control. In doing so, criminologists in the Global North are becoming more aware that they need to diversify the discipline further to include the knowledge and viewpoints of researchers from the Global South. The emerging area of global criminology is divided into two broad areas of research interest. The first, comparative criminology, focuses on identifying and understanding convergences and divergences in crime and justice between nations and regions. The second area, transnational criminology, explores the nature of organised, state, and corporate crimes and responses to organised crimes that cross borders.

14. Global criminology 2

This chapter highlights instances of crime and justice that cross national borders. The chapter is therefore concerned with how global economic, social, and political connections facilitate the organisation of crime and the coordination of justice. The chapter begins by outlining the scope of transnational criminology, looking at the theoretical concepts it employs and its defining characteristics. It then explores some of its major areas of research interest: state terror, drug trafficking, people smuggling, the trade in and dumping of toxic waste, and cybercrime. Finally, the chapter addresses two of the most prominent academic debates within and associated with transnational criminology: the extent to which transnational crime is hierarchical and organised, and the means by which the international community might best police it.

Protecting Victims of Terrorism in the Light of Global Criminology: International Experiences and Developments in the Early Third Millennium

The relationship between terrorism and criminology illustrates the global feature of crime. Terrorism is presently at the top of the fields of interest of global criminology. However, the issue of victims of terrorism has been neglected in its research agenda. This article seeks to redefine global criminology and victimology by incorporating that issue into their fields of interest. It attempts to answer key questions like: What is the typical model for protecting the victims of terrorism? How could a more operative and effective system be created for that purpose? The European and the United Nations systems are two models that provide international experiences, developments and efforts. Since they generally form a soft law-based system, the author concludes that a protection-oriented system for victims of terrorism will be more operative and effective when it is transformed into one based on hard law.

The Four Ways of Eco-global Criminology

In charting out the ‘four ways’ of eco-global criminology, this paper discusses the importance of recognising and acting in regards to the differences evident in (1) ways of being (ontology), (2) ways of knowing (epistemology), (3) ways of doing (methodology) and (4) ways of valuing (axiology). The paper assumes and asserts that global study of environmental crime is essential to the green criminology project, and particularly an eco-global criminology approach. Specific instances of criminal and harmful activity therefore need to be analysed in the context of broad international social, political, economic and ecological processes. The article outlines the key ideas of eco-global criminology, a perspective that argues that global study must always be inclusive of voices from the periphery and margins of the world’s metropolitan centres, and critical of the social relations that sustain the epistemological as well as material realities and legacies of colonialism and imperialism. Yet, in doing so, there arise many paradoxes and conundrums that likewise warrant close attention.