Towards a Decolonized Arab Criminology

• In Event: Routledge International Handbook on Decolonizing Justice – Panel II

Abstract

Criminology has largely epitomized scholarship from former colonizing countries with the large marginalization of perspectives from the former colonized nations of the Global South. The dominance of colonial legacies, Northern perspectives, and Ameri/Eurocentric paradigms hegemonize the contemporary branches of criminology. In the proposition of Arab Criminology (2023), the authors present a promising approach that endeavors to decolonize criminology from the deep-rooted orientalist perspectives that continue to dominate the discipline. The following paper examines the theoretical underpinnings and potential implications of decolonizing Arab criminology. By decentralizing Western epistemologies, this approach challenges hegemonic narratives, disrupts power imbalances, and amplifies voices and experiences from the Arab world, seamlessly transitioning into the broader vision for a decolonized Arab criminology. Such a decolonized framework can overcome the Arab world's colonial legacy, embrace indigenous values, and enrich the discipline with perspectives from a region previously overlooked.

Authors

• Ouassini Anwar, Delaware State University

• Nabil Ouassini, Prairie View A&M University