About the Project

Scholarly debate on crime in the Anglophone Caribbean has to date been contained within the social sciences. Yet crime is increasingly the subject matter of Caribbean literary and cultural expression. This project extends the interdisciplinary dimensions of debates on the region’s crime problem by creating a network of researchers working in a range of subject areas. The involvement of humanities scholars in these debates will add cultural and historical depth to understandings of the causes and consequences of crime in Anglophone Caribbean societies. Furthermore, the project's focus on the period 1834-2018 will initiate discussions of colonialism’s impact on Caribbean criminal justice systems. These are the project’s key objectives:

• To contribute to the establishment of Caribbean criminology as a distinctive field of study at the intersection of the humanities and social sciences
• To broaden interdisciplinary debate on the causes, consequences, control and representation of crime in Anglophone Caribbean societies
• To facilitate more cross-Caribbean comparative work on the region’s crime problem
• To forge sustainable links between Caribbean-based and UK-based scholars with a common interest in the research theme
• To evaluate how interdisciplinary perspectives on crime and its representation can inform policy and practice in the field of crime control
• To enrich the professional development of academic staff and postgraduate students, particularly in the area of international and interdisciplinary collaboration
• To provide a foundation for long-term formal collaborations between partner institutions, in research and teaching, beyond the project’s lifespan

Network members will participate in three themed two-day workshops which will take place in Jamaica, Trinidad and the UK. Public and voluntary sector representatives will be invited to participate in roundtable discussions at the workshops in Jamaica and Trinidad. The programme will also include additional events associated with each workshop, such as seminars, guest lectures and training sessions for postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers at both partner universities (the University of Leicester and the University of the West Indies), a panel at the British Society of Criminology conference, and a public-facing debate at Bocas, a Caribbean literature festival in Trinidad.

The papers presented at the workshops will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Caribbean Journal of Criminology.