Criminology of the borders

Lesson 1: Introduction to critical and border criminology

WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY?...................................................................................................................
It’s about the science that studies crime. Some possible objects of criminological inquiry are:
- criminal justice system
- penal law (crime)
- social norms (deviance)
- law, culture and material conditions

Critical criminology:
It’s about the system of crime control. It gives the interpretation of the crime as the object and result
of a specific social injustice, crime and other criminology processes.

Defining Critical Criminology guided by Young’s (1998) definition [our definition of critical
criminology] views the major sources of crime as the class, ethnic and patriarchal relations that
control our society. Further, critical criminology rejects as solutions to crime short-term measures
such as tougher laws, increased incarceration, coercive counseling therapy, and the like. Rather,
critical criminologists regard major structural and cultural changes within society as essential steps to
reduce criminality and to promote social justice» (DeKeseredy, Perry, 2006: 1-2).

Critical perspective in Criminology

● Labelling approach
According to this approach, crime is understood as a construction and criminal as a product of social
control thanks to the power to label and the means of institutional control (arrests, trials, sentencing,
punishment, prison). So, we talk about crimes without victims (Smoking joints, political dissent,
homosexuality, etc.) in which the deviance/crime is relative, or being constructed through strong
socio-cultural processes behind.
- micro-dimension of control + Risks to miss to see the whole picture

So, indeed, the labeling approach considers crimes as all these behaviors that are criminal because
they have been considered and labeled such, just because of a LAW, such a social construction, but
then, they are not always persecuted. So, this is what criminology of the borders is focused on: Who
is the victim of crossing a border? Who are we protecting?

● Marxist approach:
- Social control aims to re-establish a social order convenient for a capitalist society.
- Class struggle (capital and labor) and interests.
- This approach is about how much economic power it’s behind all these legal procedures.

Both approaches focus on the selective practices of control and research is about the processes of
criminalization (HOW of the criminalization and WHY of the criminalization?).
Critical Criminology in Practice
● Deconstructivist approach: deviance and crime as the product of social and normative
construction.
● Conflict theory:
It considers crime as discourse that has been mobilized a lot from political control and elections. It is
born from the need of a radical critique of the social context where criminalization is produced. As a
result, the selectivity process is object of social conflict.
- Crime is not a contemporary emergency (Critique of the political discourses on crime, such as
«war on drugs», «war on terror»).
- Repression is not a solution to crime (Critique to repression, prison, deportation).
- Search for power relations behind crime control practices (Race, class, gender).

Critical questions in criminology?

❖ Who has the real power in society?
❖ What are the deeper social forces that shape the definition, commission and punishment of
crime?
❖ What do race/ethnicity, class and gender have to do with crime and its control?
❖ Why do affluent people and politicians commit so many crimes?
❖ Is our criminal justice system fair?
❖ What are the popular images of crime and of criminals, and where do these images come
from?
❖ Are people well informed or deluded about the nature of crime?

WHAT IS A BORDER? —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s not about the line which separates different countries. A border is, actually, everywhere. There's
the idea of mobile borders and migrants carrying that border. A border can be established anytime a
migraine stops in a specific place. Criminology of borders studies internal and external borders, so
the dynamics of the relationship between the nationality control.

Crime and Society

Both concepts are related because of the constitution of social organizations, as well as values and
moral norms in a given society.
How do we behave towards victims and offenders?
- It talks about SOCIETY
- Deviance and punishment talk about social order, solidarity.
- and then, the border criminology is a new reflection around punishment.

Borders of Punishment: What does it mean?

What is the scope of the punishment? and the scope of that control and what we consider as
punishment and why?
Detention is punishment? What are the boundaries of our object of inquiry?
- Can we consider borders as a sign of punishment? Border-crossing as an object of
criminological inquiry?
- It’s a crime without victims: Why is border-crossing a crime?
 - Paradoxical: confront our self between border crossing and mobility: border crossing is useful
for neo-liberal globalization (remittances): Why is it a crime? Is it needed for economic
prevalization (the vision of crime)?
- Answer (drawing from labelling theory): criminalization processes; the nature of punishment;
system of control

Can we really understand punishment today if we do not take into account immigration penalty?

What is an “immigration penalty”?

It is the use of criminal law in immigration control. According to Bosworth (2017), immir¡gration
penalty is about “how states around the world have put the criminal justice system to work in
managing mass mobility”, including all the countries' peculiarities. So, what do we observe?

❖ The creation of new criminal offenses for immigration violations (Aliverti, 2012). Indeed,
police have acquired additional roles and responsibilities in determining the nationality of
criminal suspects (Weber 2013) and new roles and responsibilities for enforcing
immigration laws within the borders and beyond.
- Example: Frontex (created 2004, started by 300 agents and now it’s massive (number
of people working and the budget that the EU allocated to them it’s more than the
cost of Europol).
❖ Immigration officers present in many prisons in many jurisdiction to identify foreigners and
facilitate deportations (Kaufman 2015, Ugelvik 2012)
❖ New carceral spaces for offenders to facilitate identification and expulsion (Bosworth 2014).
❖ Police intercept irregular migrants within state borders or at the borders.
❖ In Europe, foreign-born population is 20% of the total prison population: Switzerland (71%);
Luxemburg (68%); Cyprus (59%); Greece (57%); Belgium (44%).
❖ States are making it more difficult for people to arrive legally and remain. Nowadays, there
are more places for confinement.
- For example, limiting access to welfare states such as the basic needs (SS).

The theoretical proposal of border criminology

Does “Punishment” still work to explain the changing in the criminal justice system?
- We need new criminological explanatory concepts, methods and words/terminology about
the new things that are just happening (new realities to investigate).
- How do we do research in the detention centers?

New and old tasks of control intersect around border control.

- The criminal justice system has been reoriented around matters of citizenship.
- However: nothing has really changed, as the primary target of agencies of institutional
control are still poor, racialized, ethnic minorities.

Nation-state focus in criminology

- Globalization and mass mobility: changes in society (Phenomenon and reaction)
Interdisciplinary field (race, citizenship, gender, ethnicity, immigration)
- Exclusion/inclusion
- Means of control beyond criminal law
- Use of criminal law without the protections
- Existing inequalities and new compositions and belonging

The main points of Border Criminology Proposal

- immigration penalty
- no national focus
- ethnographic account
- theoretically oriented
- research on harm

New Directions of Border Criminology

- Unequal social global relations
- Race and gender marginalized
- Fieldwork (invisibility)
- How do we measure punishment?

Can we really understand punishment today if we do not take into account immigration penalty?