This book explores how the law and the institutions of the criminal justice system expose minorities to different types of violence, either directly, through discrimination and harassment, or indirectly, by creating the conditions that make them vulnerable to violence from other groups of society. It draws on empirical insights across a broad array of communities and locales including Afghanistan, Colombia, Pakistan, India, Malawi, Turkey, Brazil, Singapore, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. It examines the challenges of protecting those at the margins of power, especially those whom the law is often used to oppress. The chapters explore intersecting, marginal identities influenced by four factors: rebuilding after violent regimes, economic interest behind the violence, entrenched cultural biases, and criminalisation of diversity. It provides scholars from the Global North with important lessons when attempting to impose their own solutions onto nations with a different history andcontext, or when applying their own laws to migrants from the Global South nations explored in this book. It speaks to legal and social science scholars in the fields of law, sociology, criminology, and social work.
"Radics and Ciocchini have deftly curated the contributions of new and established scholars in a work that amply illustrates why scholarship from the Global South matters in building knowledge and shaping theory."
-Dee Smythe, Professor and Director of the Centre for Law and Society at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
"The editors and authors not only show us how violence manifests in the Global South but also what we can learn from the diverse ways in which these populations respond to oppressive conditions and engage with the law."
-Lynette J. Chua, Associate Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore and President of the Asian Law & Society Association
"Criminal Legalities' originality lies in the Southern perspective it adopts to document the specific forms that law and the criminal justice system take when they target disadvantaged groups in nations that are politically and culturally marginalized themselves."
-Roberto Gargarella, Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and Senior Researcher at National Research Center, Argentina
This book explores how the law and the institutions of the criminal justice system expose minorities to different types of violence, either directly, through discrimination and harassment, or indirectly, by creating the conditions that make them vulnerable to violence from other groups of society. It draws on empirical insights across a broad array of communities and locales of the Global South. The book examines the challenges of protecting those at the margins of power, especially those whom the law is often used to oppress.
George B. Radics is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and holds a joint appointment with NUS College.
Pablo Ciocchini is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Social Policyand Criminology at the University of Liverpool, UK, and Research Associate in the Institute for Legal Culture of the National University of La Plata, Argentina.
