This book presents the work of academics from the Global South and explores, from local and regional settings, how the legal order and people's perception of it translates into an understanding of what constitutes "criminal" behaviours or activities. It aims to make an important contribution in the development of Southern Criminology.

Introduction: Reinterpreting Chaos as Diversity: An Alternative Legal Approach from the Global South; Cultural Dynamics; 1. Criminalizing Adultery in Colonial India: Constructing the Wife vs. the "Other" in Islamic Family Law; 2. "First World Problems" in the "Third World"? LGBT Rights in Singapore; 3. Privacy in Public Spaces: The Transformative Potential of Navtej Johar v. Union of India; 4. Gambling with Criminal Law: The Legal Paradox of "Jogo do Bicho" (Animal Lottery) Criminalization in Brazil; Political Tensions; 5. (Cr)immigration in the Dominican Republic? Decolonizing the Human Rights of Vulnerable Haitian Migrants; 6. Cosmologies of Federal Criminal Procedural Reform: Democratizing and Humanizing Criminal Justice in Argentina; 7. Of Punishment, Protest, and Press Conferences: Contentious Politics Amidst Despotic Decision in Contemporary Burmese courtrooms; Institutional Practices; 8. The Politics of Judicial Actors in the Philippines "War on Drugs"; 9. Arresting a Due Process Revolution: The Reform of Indonesia's Code of Criminal Procedure and the Persistence of History; 10. Sacrificing Justice for Efficiency? Examining Premature Dismissal Rates in Peruvian Corruption Cases; 11. Sexual Crimes and Transitional Justice before Courts in Brazil: Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity; Conclusion; Seeking Commonalities from Across the South

Pablo Ciocchini is a lecturer at the University of Liverpool in Singapore. He teaches Critical Criminology and Socio-legal Studies. He holds an LLM from the National University of La Plata (Argentina), an MA in the sociology of law from the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Spain), and a PhD in sociology of law from University of the Basque Country. His articles have been published in Crime, Law and Social Change, Critical Criminology, the International Journal of Law in Context, the Asian Journal of Social Science, among others. He is interested in criminal courts, judicial reforms, police accountability, state violence, and critical socio-legal theory and methodology.

George Radics is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. He teaches Law and Society, Selected Topics on Law and Justice, Sociology of Emotions, and Classical Sociological Theory. After receiving his PhD in sociology from the National University of Singapore (NUS), he earned a juris doctor with a concentration in Asian law from the University of Washington and worked for the Supreme Court of Guam for two years. He is a member of the New York Bar. His articles have been published in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Santa Clara Journal of International Law, Asian Journal of Social Science, and the Philippine Sociological Review. His work involves the judicial system, notions of justice, human rights, minorities, and comparative legal studies.