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A Criminology of Dis/Obedience?

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Abstract

The increasing criminalisation of solidarity and human rights and earth defenders, and the deep polarisation around and the policing of the pandemic, have shed light on the importance of, but also of the ways in which our societies respond to dis/obedience. In this article, I use dis/obedience as an umbrella concept that opens up a line of thinking that includes obedience, conformism, apathy, silence, denial, but also dissent, counter-conducts, resistance, indocility, or disobedience. What role do these concepts play or for that matter could play in criminology? Condensing its gaze on crime and deviance and particularly on the individual has led criminology to a sustained disregard for large scale “crimes of obedience” and for entrenched situations, contexts and cultures of obedience that lead to major social harm, but also for the criminalisation of dissent and disobedience. In this article I propose an interdisciplinary and sustained engagement with a criminology of dis/obedience.

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    Brunilda Pali

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Pali, B. A Criminology of Dis/Obedience?. Crit Crim 31, 3–16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-022-09664-7

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