Colonial Confessions: An Autoethnography of Writing Criminology in the New South Africa

Dixon, Bill

Abstract

This article is an autoethnographic account of a 20-year engagement with South African criminology. It is written from the perspective of someone from the Global North, a beneficiary of Britain’s colonial past and the present dominance of northern ways of thinking and being. The aim is to encourage other criminologists from a similar background to reflect on their histories and the impact of their work in the present, and to be open to ideas from outside the Euro-American mainstream of the discipline. The evolution of South African criminology, and its gradual adoption of a more southern or decolonial sensibility, is traced in the work of the author and others.

Citation

Dixon, B. (2024). Colonial Confessions: An Autoethnography of Writing Criminology in the New South Africa. British Journal of Criminology, 64(5), 1063-1079. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae011

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 6, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 25, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-09
• Deposit Date: Feb 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 27, 2024
• Journal: The British Journal of Criminology
• Print ISSN: 0007-0955
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3529
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1063-1079
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae011
• Keywords: Law, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Social Psychology, Pathology and Forensic Medicine
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/31887958
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/64/5/1063/7614033