Dr David Fonseca

School of Law

Lecturer in Criminology

Headshot of David Fonseca
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david.fonseca@sheffield.ac.uk
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Full contact details

Dr David Fonseca
School of Law
EF01
Bartolome虂 House
Winter Street
葫芦影业
S3 7ND
Profile

My scholarly trajectory spans a few different geographical areas, always involved with questions revolving around crime, punishment and crime control. This path began a few years ago, when first engaging with criminology and social theory. After receiving a law degree in Brazil, I have pursued a LL M in the Netherlands at the University of Utrecht, studying the process of internationalization of crime and criminal justice. Soon afterwards, I have also obtained a LL M in Brazil, discussing criminal law and criminological theories at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Subsequently, my interests turned to the sociology of punishment, as mass incarceration emerged as a pressing contemporary problem. For that reason, I have decided to move to the USA to understand better this process. There, I have achieved a PhD from the sociology department at New York University (NYU), where I have closely worked with the Law School and the Institute for Law and Society.


My teaching experience also covers different regions. In Brazil, besides adjunct positions earlier in my career, I have held tenured positions at the Universidade Federal de Goi谩s (UFG) and the Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia (UFSB). Between 2016 and 2018, I have also been a lecturer in the School of Law of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, where I was also a member of the Crime and Justice Research Centre. While there, I had the opportunity to contribute to the development of southern criminology, which is still an ongoing project. For the first time as an academic in England, I came to the School of Law of the University of 葫芦影业 in April 2024, seeking to comprehend the challenges of social control in western democracies at current times.

Research interests

My work focuses on criminology, sociology of punishment and social theory, primarily analysing the field of penalty and its interconnections. It attempts to revamp the main tenets of this academic area, as to incorporate realities outside of the mainstream North American and European contexts. A great part of my scholarship revolves around the arrival of mass incarceration in Latin America, particularly in Brazil in recent decades. It attempts to explain and comprehend the underlying reasons for the emergence of a new crime complex in the region, paying close attention to the historical and social specificities of this intricate process. At the same time, this scholarship also aims at renovating the canons of this area of research, since this wider geographical reach would also offer a qualified standpoint in which to situate changes in other areas of the globe.


After working as a legal scholar in different parts of the world, moving to the University of 葫芦影业 brings me the opportunity of advancing my research on the controversial legacies of colonial enterprises for the current transformations of social control in the Euro-American zone. This research aims at exploring recent development in the criminal justice systems of these regions, mostly patterns of policing and imprisonment. It also seeks to understand the interrelations between border penality and punishment, as the emergence of crimmigration and border penality represents a marked shift from past policies for addressing migration in the region. These changes require a more encompassing effort to make sense of current systems of social control and their impact on social life.

Publications

Journal articles

  • Fonseca DS (2024) . The British Journal of Criminology, 64(3), 538-557. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Fonseca DS & Can锚do C (2021) . RIS download Bibtex download
  • Carrington K, Dixon B, Fonseca D, Goyes DR, Liu J & Zysman D (2019) . Critical Criminology, 27(1), 163-189. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Fonseca DS (2018) . Punishment & Society, 20(1), 54-72. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Fonseca DS (2018) . Punishment & Society, 20(3), 329-350. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sozzo M & Fonseca DS (2014) Entre a criminologia cr铆tica e a imagina莽茫o criminological: Entrevista com Jock Young. Dilemas, 7(2), 367-390. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sozzo M & Fonseca D () . International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 5(3), 95-110. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Fonseca D & Sozzo M () . Delito y Sociedad, 1(33), 141-154. RIS download Bibtex download

Chapters

  • Fonseca DS (2020) , Criminologia & Cinema: mem贸ria e verdade (pp. 139-168). J.M Bosch RIS download Bibtex download
  • Fonseca DS (2018) , The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South (pp. 709-728). Springer International Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

Centre for Criminological Research

  • Criminological theories
  • Social theory
  • Sociology of punishment
  • Southern criminology
Teaching activities

Professional activities and memberships

Member of Editorial Boards
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy
Punishment & Society: an international journal
Revista Latinoamericana de Criminologia 鈥 RELAC