Indigenous Criminology and Criminal Justice Research

Dear Colleagues,

Indigenous peoples residing in colonial contexts across the globe are invariably over-represented in a range of negative social indicators, not least of all, criminal justice statistics.  Nowhere is this situation more apparent than the settler-colonial jurisdictions of Australia, Canada, the USA and New Zealand, where Indigenous peoples are significantly over-represented in all stages of the criminal justice system, from police contact, to arrests, to convictions and to prison sentences. Due to their over-representation, Indigenous peoples have been the focus of significant attention from mainstream criminology. However, until recently much of this attention was founded on what Dr Antje Deckert of AUT University (Auckland) calls ‘’silencing methodologies’’, namely, approaches to research that exclude Indigenous peoples in the design, implementation, analysis and reporting of research on their experience of (neo)colonial crime control. This situation began to change throughout the 1990s and 2000s as Indigenous scholars began moving into criminology in increasing numbers, and, along with critical non-Indigenous allies, began to forge Indigenous-centred theories, research methods and ethics protocols, that gave primacy of place to the Indigenous voice. Through this work we have witnessed the rise of counter-colonial criminology and Indigenous criminology, which have brought a much-needed Indigenous perspective to our experiences of neo-colonial crime control.   

This Special Issue intends to build on the critical work of Indigenous scholars and our non-Indigenous allies, progressing an Indigenous-centred analysis of colonial crime control and its impact on Indigenous peoples throughout the world. Contributions are welcome that enhance our knowledge of Indigenous people’s experiences of criminal justice, Indigenous theorising of crime and social harm, and Indigenous justice practices. More specific contributions in the following areas are sought:

1. Indigenous theories of crime and social harm;
2. Indigenous responses to crime and social harm;
3. Indigenous people, inter-generational trauma and criminal justice;
4. Colonialism and settler-colonial crime control;
5. Indigenous women and the criminal justice system.

Dr. Juan M Tauri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. No article processing charges will apply for submissions to this Special Issue. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Indigenous criminology
• Indigenous justice
• Counter-colonial criminology
• Colonialism
• Settler-colonialism
• State violence
• Inter-generational trauma, intersectionality, victimisation and self-determination