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Introduction: Exploring Crime, Mental Health, and Criminal Justice in Africa from a Psycho-Criminological Perspective

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Crime, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System in Africa

Abstract

Traditionally, criminological scholarship has been Western-centric. In recent decades, movements to ‘decolonise’ criminology from its Western-centricity have been initiated. The decolonisation and democratisation of criminology have also been observed in the African context, with the development of African criminology. Although the African criminology movement shows promise, there is still a lack of scholarship emerging from this geographical region. Hence, the primary purpose of this edited volume is to advance knowledge by presenting up-to-date findings from research conducted among different populations within this geographical region. In this book, the psycho-criminological approach is adopted to explore different aspects and dynamics of crime, criminals and their mental health status, and the criminal justice system in the African region. This edited collection, with a total of 17 chapters, is written by researchers and experienced field practitioners from the African countries of Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria. Divided into two parts, this collection attempts to introduce readers to contemporary research that discusses a diverse range of topics (e.g., suicidal behaviour, violent crimes, kidnapping, online dating, and romance scam) and issues (e.g., mental health care, conditions, and legal status).

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Correspondence to Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan .

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Chan, H.C.(., Adjorlolo, S. (2021). Introduction: Exploring Crime, Mental Health, and Criminal Justice in Africa from a Psycho-Criminological Perspective. In: Chan, H.C.(., Adjorlolo, S. (eds) Crime, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71024-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71024-8_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-71023-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-71024-8

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