CRIMINOLOGY AS CULTURAL PRACTICE: A COMPARATIVE DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS

Abstract

The study utilised a comparative documentary analysis to examine criminology as a distinct professional and cultural practice across seven diverse countries: Nigeria, Uganda, India, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Argentina, and Australia. Utilising a
purposive sampling method, these countries were selected to represent a broad global spectrum of socio-legal environments. Unlike ethnographic research, which requires primary fieldwork, the study systematically synthesised secondary literature, official reports, and legal documentation to investigate how the discipline of criminology is applied in varied field settings. The study adopted
structural functionalism as its primary theoretical framework to evaluate how crime is perceived, prevented, and controlled; however, it acknowledged that this framework’s focus on system equilibrium poses inherent limitations for a fully transformative decolonial critique. Findings demonstrated that criminological practice is fundamentally shaped by local cultural negotiations, revealing a significant disparity between standardised theoretical protocols and the realities of diverse justice systems. In nations such as Nigeria and Uganda, the study highlighted how informal power structures and communal justice models operate independently of formal state definitions, challenging the universality of Western-centric models. The study affirmed that a robust understanding of social order requires a decolonised methodology that views criminological practice as a socially situated act rather than a mere data-collection exercise. It advocated for a pluralistic research approach that integrates indigenous knowledge systems into formal criminological inquiry to ensure that policy and academic study remain culturally grounded and contextually valid.