The Coloniality of Justice

Abstract

This chapter illustrates how colonial-era power dynamics continue to influence judicial decision-making at the pre-trial stage in Brazil to reveal the coloniality of justice. The research responds directly to Aliverti et al.’s (2021) call to ‘decolonize the criminal question’ by exposing and explaining how colonial logics inform contemporary justice mechanisms. In 2015, custody hearings were introduced in Brazil to address concerns over excessive use of pre-trial detention. Despite this move from paper-based decisions to in-person hearings, the use of pre-trial detention remains high, especially for young Black men with low to no income. This research explores why. The chapter begins by discussing the hierarchicalized and bounded nature of citizenship during the Portuguese Empire. It then explores the concept of coloniality and charts how white-supremacist power structures were sustained beyond the abolition of slavery and into the postcolonial period. Thematic analysis of twenty-six interviews with judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and specialists in Rio de Janeiro reveals the white-centred nature of citizenship and how stigmatized spaces are considered criminogenic. Analysis across spatial, temporal, and subjective dimensions suggests that colonial white-supremacist ways of understanding the world have persisted. Inhumane treatment of racialized groups is thus naturalized at an ontological level for judges. The high rates of pre-trial detention can therefore be understood as a product of the coloniality of justice.