Introduction: Legacies of Empire

Abstract

This special issue of Punishment & Society examines the global legacy of empire and colonialism through its effects on the penal regimes and practices of former colonies. The seven articles herein explore the historical patterns of colonial penal journeys as well as their contemporary manifestations. The contributions capture the necessary interdisciplinary scope of such investigations, bringing together diverse perspectives from which to interrogate punishment and the legacies of empire. The production of ‘knowledge’ in the Global North has been critiqued as the production of a largely Anglophone and Eurocentric knowledge, one presumed to have a universal application (Connell, 2007). This special issue seeks to ‘decentre’ the Global North through the inclusion of the historical and contemporary legacies of the expression of penality in different postcolonial settings. Colonisation bequeaths