Practicing Asian Criminology: Setsuo Miyazawa’s work as food for thought

Abstract

This article addresses implications of Setsuo Miyazawa’s work for debates on Asian and Southern criminology, that have drawn attention to mainstream criminology’s regional bias, and the importance of criminological studies on Asian/ Southern contexts for criminology’s further development. Miyazawa’s work shows how in depth analyses of and familiarity with the research topic at hand allow for an internationally engaging employment of general theoretical concepts, leading to new insights into specific Japanese contexts as well as cross-national, general theoretical understandings of crime and criminal justice related phenomena. Bringing into focus Asian criminology’s inherent comparative dimension, the article argues that a commitment to a shared conceptual language is indispensable, as is a wide circulation of studies on Asian contexts in international academic fora.</p