Contemporary critical criminologies. Thinking from and for the South

Since the middle of the last decade of the 20th century, the security issue has been consolidated in Argentina, as well as in Latin America and the Western world as a whole, as the hallmark of government public policies and as the mainstream of criminological studies that are limited to establishing causal relationships between violence, crimes and the most disadvantaged social sectors, making invisible other forms of violence and inequalities such as the illegalities of the powerful and the agencies of the penal system.

Critical criminology—which emerged in the 60s and 70s, in opposition to traditional criminology and quickly garnered simultaneous contributions in the United States, Europe, and Latin America—shifted its analytical focus from the criminal subject. Its critical approach stems from its emphasis on the penal system, the processes of criminalization and selectivity, and social control, highlighting the historical nature of illegal acts, violence, and the perpetuation of inequalities. In this context, it is crucial to delve beyond the distinction between crime and punishment, addressing both the differential administration of illegal acts and the harm they cause.

How can a critical criminological agenda be revitalized today? To accomplish this, reconstructing the plurality of existing theories, based on more or less established traditions, is imperative. With this objective, the seminar proposes to explore new contributions from a comprehensive, updated, and diverse perspective, in light of a review of the original contributions that gave rise to critical criminologies in both the Global North and the Global South. This work involves examining, in particular, which themes and objects have become priorities, which new subjects they illuminate, and which perspectives they articulate. New critical criminologies go beyond common crimes to focus on the illegalities of the powerful: corporate, state, and environmental crimes; institutional racism and xenophobia; and social harms that disproportionately affect women and diverse groups, Indigenous peoples, racialized individuals, and, more generally, the populations of the Global South and the vital environments that sustain human and more-than-human life, and which in many cases are not defined in penal codes. In this sense, new criminologies recognize intersectionality as a strategic prism and address how class, gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, and geographic location configure central identity markers of penal selectivity.

With this purpose, the seminar is structured in ten synchronous and asynchronous classes in which the problems that illuminate, the concepts that mobilize and the immanent potentialities and limits of decolonial, southern, zemiology and border-criminologies; feminist and transfeminist criminologies; green and blue criminology; and the criminologies of crimes of the powerful will be addressed.

GENERAL PURPOSE:

To contribute to the knowledge, understanding and deepening of the new theoretical perspectives that, since the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, have destabilized, complemented and contributed new problematizations in critical criminology.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

• To understand and problematize the main concepts of decolonial, southern and bordercriminologies.
• To critically analyze the main categories and debates of feminist and transfeminist criminologies.
• Develop a critical perspective on the theoretical tools of green and blue criminology.
• To introduce and discuss the theoretical frameworks and controversies that underpin the criminologies of crimes committed by the powerful.
•  To exercise and promote research and production capacities of works attentive to the problems of the new critical criminologies.

• Introduction. Traditional criminology and critical criminologies.
• Pioneering contributions from Latin America and the Global South to critical criminologies.
• Decolonial and Southern Criminologies
• New feminist and transfeminist criminologies from the margins
• Illegalities of the powerful and reverse selectivity
• Securitization of mobility, crimigration and border-criminologies
• State crimes, corporate crime, and state-corporate crime in the peripheries
• Zemiology and social damage
• Green and blue criminology
• Critical criminologies situated as spaces of resistance and discourses of emancipation

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• del Olmo, R. (1990). Second Criminological Rupture. Caracas: Central University of Venezuela.
• Loza, G. (2025). Pioneers of Liberation: Lola Aniyar and Rosa del Olmo in Latin American Critical Criminology. Crime and Society, 59(1), e0137. 
• Prando, CC de M. (2018) “A Critical Criminology in Brazil and the critical studies on branquidade,” Revista Direito e Práxis, 9(1), pp. 70–84. 
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• Aliverti, A., Carvalho, H., Chamberlen, A., & Sozzo, M. (2023). Decolonizing the criminal question: colonial legacies, contemporary problems (p. 416). Oxford University Press.
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• Aniyar de Castro, Lola (2010) “Chapter X. Eve's sin: female offenders. Impact and amplification of effects”. In Criminology of Human Rights. Axiological Criminology as criminal policy, Editores del Puerto, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
• Farb L. and Videla R (2020) “Punitive pluralism and patriarchal power: public shaming and duty of compensation”. In Gusis G. Patriarchal power and punitive power: dialogues from Latin American criticism, Ediar.
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• Pegoraro, JS (2015). The social ties of economic crime and social order. Buenos Aires: Eudeba.
• Bosworth, M., Franko, K., Lee, M., & Mehta, R. (2024). Border criminology: an introduction. In Handbook on Border Criminology (pp. 1-9). Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Mezzadra, Sandro Neilson, B. (2017) The border as a method. 2017.
• Monclús Masó, M., & Brandariz García, J. Á. (2015). Migration control policies and practices: A comparative study of migrant control in Latin American and European contexts. Didot Editions.
• Colognese, MMF, & Budó, M. de N. (2018). Limits and possibilities of critical criminology in studies of two crimes, two States and two markets. Revista de Direitos e Garantias Fundamentais, 19(1), 55–90.
• Feierstein, D. (2011) “On concepts, memories and identities: war, genocide and/or state terrorism in Argentina”. Politics and Society, 48(3), 571-586.
• Friedrichs, D.O., & Rothe, D.L. (2014). State-corporate crime and major financial institutions: Interrogating an absence. State Crime Journal, 3(2), 146-162. Pluto Journals.
• Bernal, CE, Cabezas, S., Forero, A., Rivera, I., & Vidal, I. (2014). Beyond criminology. An epistemological debate on social harm, international crimes and market crimes. In Crimes of States, Markets and social harm (pp. 35-80). Anthropos.
• Dallorso, N and Seghezzo, G. (2025): “Financial Colonialism and Social Harm: The Case of YPF SA Company as an Expression of New Forms of Economic Domination in Argentina, in Heydon, J., Dertadian, G.,
• Boukli, A.: Zemiology Beyond The Critique of Capitalism: Harm, Colonialism and Decolonization.
• Hillyard, P., & Tombs, S. (2017). Social harm and zemiology. The Oxford handbook of criminology, 6.
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• Aniyar de Castro, L. (1981). Knowledge and social order: criminology as legitimation and criminology of liberation. Maracaibo: University of Zulia.
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• Zaffaroni, ER and Dias dos Santos, Í. (2019). The new criminological critique: criminology in times of financial totalitarianism. Quito: El Siglo.

The basic requirements for taking a seminar are:

• Availability of at least 4 hours per week to dedicate to the seminar course.
• Internet access.
• Reasonable handling of communication and computer tools.
• Language proficiency in the language in which the course will be taught. The official languages ​​are Spanish and Portuguese.

The seminars last 10 weeks, plus the completion of a final project. A total of 90 hours of dedication will be credited.

A course consists of ten classes, each accompanied by required reading bibliography, supplementary bibliography, discussion forums and training activities proposed by the teaching team, partial deliveries and a final project.
The course is online and asynchronous. Some instructors may propose synchronous activities. In those cases, the time and date will be agreed upon beforehand between the instructors and the students to ensure everyone's participation. Attendance at synchronous sessions is not mandatory.
To pass the seminar, you must participate in at least 80% of the discussion forums and activities proposed by the teachers, have completed the scheduled partial deliveries, and pass the final work.

The possible payment methods are by credit card or bank transfer.