Can the Subaltern Speak in Criminology? Analysing the Production of Knowledge on Crimes of the Powerful in the 21st Century through Latin American Postcolonial Lenses

Amalia Valdés-Riesco

doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.v10i1.1513

Abstract

Through postcolonial criminological lens, this article attempts to evidence the domination of knowledge in criminology of Crimes of the powerful in the Global North and Anglo-language countries, and whether this domination translates into an influence of knowledge in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 21st century. To address this, a scoping review search was developed to find research articles focused on Crimes of the powerful both globally and in Latin American countries, and a citation analysis performed on specific studies. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied as a search strategy. The results demonstrate that a high level of concentration exists in the production of knowledge of Crimes of the powerful studies in the Global North and Anglo-language countries compared to the Global South and non-Anglo-language countries, and also evidence the high level of influence of knowledge that Global North countries have on Latin American studies.

Highlights

Based on the work of the cited authors, seven types of Crimes of the powerful have been succinctly identified and addressed by Barak (2015): crimes of globalisation, corporate crimes, environmental crimes, white-collar and financial crimes, state crimes, state-corporate crimes and state-routinised crimes. These authors show an increasingly rich focus on Crimes of the powerful research, several scholars have expressed their concern about the lack of studies and knowledge that exist among criminologists regarding these crimes compared to mainstream street crimes (Barak 2015; Lynch, McGurrin and Fenwick 2004; McGurrin, Jarrell, Jahn and Cochrane 2013; Shichor 2009; Snider 2003; Tombs and Whyte 2003b; Whyte 2008)
The scoping review search demonstrates that most of the studies are predominantly developed in the Global North, by authors working in the Global North, and in Anglo-language countries, leaving a marginalised space for the production of knowledge in nonAnglo-language countries in the Global South
The present study filled this knowledge gap by empirically evidencing, through a scoping review and citation analysis method focused on the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases, the extent to which academic research from the Global North and Anglo-language countries dominates the knowledge production in criminology of Crimes of the powerful and affects Southern regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

Summary

Introduction

Based on the work of the cited authors, seven types of Crimes of the powerful have been succinctly identified and addressed by Barak (2015): crimes of globalisation, corporate crimes, environmental crimes, white-collar and financial crimes, state crimes, state-corporate crimes and state-routinised crimes These authors show an increasingly rich focus on Crimes of the powerful research, several scholars have expressed their concern about the lack of studies and knowledge that exist among criminologists regarding these crimes compared to mainstream street crimes (Barak 2015; Lynch, McGurrin and Fenwick 2004; McGurrin, Jarrell, Jahn and Cochrane 2013; Shichor 2009; Snider 2003; Tombs and Whyte 2003b; Whyte 2008).

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Conclusion