In the aftermath of the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests, renewed calls to decolonize university curricula took centre stage. This is certainly not the first time that such debates have captured the critical conscience of the criminological imagination. The sheer energy of such mass mobilizations, however, compels criminologists to think about the subject matter of their discipline anew and in novel ways too.
This call for papers has this ambition in mind, but also aims at going beyond existing Southern, postcolonial, or decolonial perspectives within criminology. Contributors are urged instead to reflect on the lessons that Criminology can learn from non-disciplinary, and perhaps anti-criminological insights too, by anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and antiracist work beyond the academy. Works of literature, film, music, prison memoirs, political and social commentary, or even flyers/posters from community organising initiatives, struggles and campaigns (past or present) are all welcome.
The intention of this, deliberately provocative, orientation for this special edition of Criminological Encounters is to encourage scholarship on rather than within Criminology that draws on alternative modes of critical intervention on issues around ‘criminality’, punishment, social control and racist state violence. The speeches of Frederick Douglass, the antiracist critiques found in Black/Afrodiasporic music(s), or the prison writings of Safiya Bukhari, Angela Y. Davis, Assata Shakur, Mumia Abu-Jamal immediately come to mind as notable examples–as do Angelo Herndon’s memoir and the semi-scholarly-semi-literary contributions of Derrick Bell or Saidiya Hartman, to say nothing of George Jackson’s letters from Soledad prison who issued this challenge to Criminology from his cell:
‘After one concedes that racism if stamped unalterably into the present nature of […] sociopolitical and economic life […] and concedes further that criminals and crime arise from material, economic, sociopolitical causes, we can then burn all of the criminology and penology libraries and direct our attention where it will do some good’ (Jackson, 1971: 42)
We are therefore looking for submissions that offer reflections on, or rather against, racist criminalisation, punishment and social control – inspired by scholarship, literature, art and music that yields better politics of anti-racism that Criminology ever could, even in its postcolonial, decolonial, Southern guises.
Interested contributors to this special issue are therefore encouraged to submit abstracts of 250 words (max), accompanied by 5 keywords that address the following themes, issues and debates:
- The legacy of coloniality in legal penal (=‘criminal justice’) systems (with)in Criminology itself
- Black, Indigenous and other critiques of racist criminal injustice by people of colour
- Black resistance to state violence and oppression in the form of the law, policing, courts and prisons
- Critiques of ‘white’, Western modernity/reason and the disciplinary knowledge(s) it has spawned
- Different ways of thinking about justice beyond state paradigms, criminological discourse, or legal penal systems
This special issue welcomes contributions from scholars who are not academics, early-career academics, activists and people who are not criminologists but think about and/or struggle against racist state violence.
Submission formats:
We welcome several formats:
- Full-length articles (6000 to 8500 words including References in APA 7th)
- Short papers (1000-3000 words). These might work well for alternative writing formats that depart from traditional academic articles
- Book reviews (up to 3000 words)
- Opinion pieces and commentaries (up to 3000 words)
- Interviews
- Forums (a collection of short papers focused on a specific sub-topic)
Timeline:
- 1 March 2026: Please submit an up to two-page synopsis of your intended paper, giving us an indication of main argument and approach.
- 1 April 2026: We will get back to you on whether your abstract has been accepted
- 1 June 2026: First drafts due (with editorial feedback provided thereafter)
- 1 March 2027: Publication
Please send abstracts and any queries to: info@criminologicalencounters.org and dani.temboury.gutierrez@vub.be and mattias.de.backer@vub.be
See also our website