Judges as Agents of Coloniality
Understanding the Coloniality of Justice at the Pre-trial Stage in Brazil
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8400765 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Omar Phoenix Khan (0000-0001-8756-843X, Institute of Criminology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1045-1062 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjc/azae009 |
| OpenAlex | W4392571321 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 34 |
This paper exposes how colonial ways of knowing and being shape judicial behaviour in Brazil, where pre-trial detention is excessively used against racialised groups. I argue that judges continue to conceptualise and operationalise justice according to colonial logics and thus reveal the coloniality of justice. Drawing on decolonial theory from across South America and from interviews and court observations in Rio de Janeiro, I reveal how judges understand themselves as heroic crime fighters, acting beyond the law in a modern moral crusade. I examine how violence remains a central component of justice and consider how judges deal with the contradiction of neutrality and aggression. I argue that judges, by endorsing or tolerating violence, become agents of coloniality
Biology · Criminology · Economic Justice · Political science · Sociology · Stage (stratigraphy) · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Law in Society and Culture
Counter-Colonial Criminology
Epistemologies of the South
The Brazil Reader
Racial Democracy and Black Victimization in Brazil
Conviviality and Survival
Reimagining Black Difference and Politics in Brazil
On Decoloniality
Coloniality, just war & carceral injustice in Brazil
The exercise of authority during interactions in custody hearings in São Paulo (Brazil)
Decolonizing the criminal question
Mass incarceration in times of economic growth and inclusion? Three steps to understand contemporary imprisonment in Brazil
Decolonial pedagogies walking and asking. Notes to Paulo Freire from AbyaYala
Coloniality of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Decolonizing Post-Colonial Studies and Paradigms of Political-Economy
Southern Criminology
Objectivity and reliability in qualitative analysis
Geopolitics of sensing and knowing
Encarceramento e desencarceramento no Brasil
Justice-Sector and Human Rights Reform under the Cardoso Government
The Geopolitics of Knowledge and the Colonial Difference
Diálogos com o "realismo marginal" e a crítica à branquidade
Rés negras, juízes brancos
Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom
Necropolitics
On Mules and Bodies
On the Coloniality of Being
The Epistemic Decolonial Turn
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |