Historical Criminology, Historical Time, and Embodiment: A Phenomenological Intervention

Abstract This article aims to broaden the theoretical perspective of historical criminology in a two-fold way: (1) it introduces Martin Heidegger’s notions of temporality and historicity to further clarify how the unity of future, past, and present structures our everyday lives; (2) and relatedly, drawing on phenomenological approaches to embodiment, it outlines how culture and tradition are passed down over generations by means of collective body memories. To demonstrate how this plays out in practice, the article uses examples of the colonial past influencing contemporary social policy. It explains how violence stemming from the colonial period, in general, may live on and continue to shape encounters between police and marginalized communities, and how that maintains the boundaries between in- and out-groups.