The Crisis of the Critical Criminology Crisis in Brazil: Epistemological, Methodological and Political Challenges in Authoritarian Times

Abstract

AbstractOur objective in this article is to outline the current state of critical criminology in Brazil. Our starting point is the recognition that critical criminology in Latin America has produced significant contributions to the development of global criminology and poses acute questions about the current deadlock in the field. The crisis of critical criminology triggered in the 1980s is being called into question because of the current political reality, notably in the face of the advance of a new type of authoritarianism. Thus, focusing the discussion on Brazil, this article seeks to identify contemporary movements of external and internal critique in the field, organising the debate in epistemological, methodological and political terms. It seeks to present the challenges of criminological criticism in Brazil and point out strategic avenues for academic critique and emancipatory movements in order to build a unified resistance to the authoritarianism.