Developing Cultural Criminology Theory and practice in Papua New Guinea Edited by Cyndi Banks

What is an appropriate theoretical approach to criminology in the "Third World"? This book makes an argument for cultural specificity and the development of a cultural criminology appropriate to a particular country. It contains original criminological studies that apply these notions to Papua New Guinea, where law and order problems are rife, especially gang violence.

A major strength of the volume is the inter-disciplinary authorship which include Stanley Cohen, Marilyn Strathern, Cyndi Banks, Sinclair Dineen, Henry Ivarature, Adam Reed, Karen Sykes, Richard Sikani, and Tony Crook.

These distinguished criminologists and anthropologists contribute studies of crime and social issues in Papua New Guinea based on their original research. The book has chapters on:

• The Melanesian conception and meaning of violence
• Street begging in Port Moresby
• Drug control
• Raskol (criminal) gangs, education and the "problem" of youth
• The prison experience for a Melanesian
• Dispute settlement between mining companies and villagers
• State responses to violence through the criminal justice system and informal approaches to the resolution of crime, including the surrender of criminal gangs

The collection emphasises that "Third World" criminology has been marginalised by being subsumed in the Western discourse on crime. As Professor Stanley Cohen writes in the preface, "it is a measure of the continuing ethnocentricity of western-dominated criminology that a volume of this sort, under this title, is still necessary."

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