Compass of Sociology happy to congratulate Dr. George Baylon Radics as our new associate editor Crime and Deviance Unit. Dr Radics is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. The Sociology Compass Associate Editor’s role is to lead the ordering of recent review articles by subject area. We took the opportunity to speak with George about his research and goals in the criminology department as he joins the Sociology Compass editorial team.
Tell us about your research and how you came to focus on sociology?
I have a degree in Sociology and Law and worked in the courts for several years before returning to academia, so my initial interest was in criminal law, courts, justice and human rights. I eventually gravitated more towards social studies of law and law and society, and because of my crime research, I also teach courses on deviance, sociology of law, and continue to teach other courses on social theory and emotions. I am a Southeast Asian American who chooses to pursue a PhD in Singapore, so my worldview is rooted in the Global South, particularly Southeast Asia.
What questions would you consider the most compelling or important to your research area at this time?
I think we’ve seen a sharp rise in xenophobia, populism and political extremism over the last few years, because of Brexit and the rise of Trump. The same patterns are emerging around the world, and the consequences are even more severe in the Global South, where many legal systems have not had as much time to develop or are still struggling with an entrenched version of rights left behind by colonialism. .
Due to the specter of COVID and economic recession, legal rights and guarantees can be threatened, and I believe that more attention should be paid to the types of repression that the state can use to preserve “law and order”. In addition, my work for the last decade has been concerned with the decolonization of social theory, so the recent debate about the decriminalization of criminology and social theory is also of great interest to me.
What do you think sociological research contributes to society? Why is this important?
I believe that sociological research, especially on crime and deviance, can explore how to make society less oppressive for all of us. Instead of focusing on how to reduce crime and promote conformity, we should be looking at the inequalities in our society that make everyday life unbearable and the specific conditions that push people over the edge into crime and deviance. In this way, we can look for more humanistic ways to fight crime: not only for society as a whole, which has to suffer the consequences, but also for the “criminals” or “deviants” who are trapped in its permanent system. .
As an associate editor in the crime and deviance section Compass of SociologyWhat do you look for when submitting and evaluating review articles?
While important and theoretically sound observations from the Global North have helped push the sociology of crime and deviance forward, perspectives from the Global South can also help counterbalance biases and provide important interventions in the field’s ongoing debates about race, origin, gender, sexuality, and urbanization. So, commissioning review articles from those outside the Global North will be a priority for me. However, I am also interested in new and promising perspectives in areas such as green criminology and queer criminology, as well as review articles on the relatively neglected areas of white-collar crime, professional crime, and state crime.
What inspires you to participate Compass of Sociology like AE?
The ability to shape the discipline and seek more Global South perspectives in the study of crime and deviance led me to work as Associate Editor Compass of Sociology. I think these are exciting times for the magazine as it begins to embrace original reporting and internationalize its perspective at the same time. The work of the chief editors is also particularly exciting. Ali Meghji’s work on decolonizing the social sciences is inspiring, and finally the prospect of working with Zarine Rocha was a big draw. She is an amazing editor who I really enjoyed working with Asian Journal of Social Science.
What would you put at the top of a recommended reading list for readers and researchers new to your discipline?
I would recommend an older but still relevant piece by Alexander Liazos, The Poverty of the Sociology of Deviance: Beyond Nuts, Slugs and Perverts, published Social problems As a social law scholar, I enjoy the work of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Loïc JD Wacquant, Kerry Carrington and my Singaporean colleagues Lynette Chua, Narayanan Ganapathy and Pattana Kitiarsa.
Dr. Radics takes over this position as Associate Editor from Professor Vera Lopez, who ends her term in 2022. at the end We would like to thank Professor Lopez for her dedication and commitment to leading the Department of Crime and Deviance from 2018. month of January. You can take a look at the articles published during this term here.
