Hybridity in the Canadian Craft of Criminology

Abstract

Canada is a distinctive and rich contributor to criminological thought. As in many things, it benefits both from its proximity to powerhouses of the discipline in the United States and from distancing itself from them. Distancing is needed because criminology is enmeshed within a pathological disciplinary structure of social science research invented in the United States and Europe. Canada embraces more hybridity than most national criminologies, though it still falls short in its openness to insights from the South and East of the globe. An important part of the hybridity it does embrace in greater measure than other western societies is wisdom from its Indigenous peoples. Restorative justice, private policing, corporate crime, and crime-war are used to illustrate strengths of Canadian hybridity. These are Canadian conversations in which Carol LaPrairie engaged evocatively.