Biko Agozino
Nigerian criminologist
About
Why is this person notable and influential?Biko Agozino is a Nigerian criminologist and author, and a founding member of the International governing council of the Centre for Democracy and Development in Lagos, Nigeria, and the criminology unit coordinator and professor of sociology at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He earned a B.Sc. in sociology from the University of Calabar, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Edinburgh.
Agozino is best known for his book, Black Women and Criminal Justice System, in which he explores issues of gender, power, race and ethnicity within the criminal justice system. Another book, Counter-Colonial Criminology: A Critique of Imperialist Reason, is considered a vital read for any students and scholars within the field of criminology.
He has served as editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies and as a member of the editorial board of Jenda: A Journal of West African Women’s Studies and Culture. He has continued to study the exaggeratedly punitive justice systems of the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and Russia, which appear to be making the problem of crime worse rather than discouraging it.