Dr Luiz Dal Santo

School of Law

Lecturer in Criminology

Dr Luiz Dal Santo Profile Picture
Profile picture of Dr Luiz Dal Santo Profile Picture
l.dalsanto@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 2XX XXXX

Full contact details

Dr Luiz Dal Santo
School of Law
EF16b
Bartolome虂 House
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
Profile

Dr Luiz Dal Santo joined the Sheffield School of Law as a Lecturer in Criminology in February 2026. He also serves as Assistant Director of the Centre for Criminological Research at Sheffield. Prior to that, he held teaching appointments at the University of Oxford (Centre for Criminology, Hertford College, and St Catherine鈥檚 College), Oxford Brookes University, the University of Law, and the University of Roehampton.

His research interests lie in the sociology of punishment, the politics of crime control, prison and penal power, Southern and Global Criminologies, and comparative criminal justice. Geographically, his work has focused primarily on Brazil, Latin America, and global peripheries more broadly.

Luiz has published one monograph, A Puni莽茫o no Brasil: Cr铆tica do Giro Punitivo (Punishment in Brazil: critique of the punitive turn), and nearly 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on punishment, penal populism, prisons, policing and police violence, racism and criminal justice, and Southern Criminology. His work has been published in English, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish.

Much of his academic work has been developed through collaboration with colleagues internationally. Luiz is a founding organiser of the international conference series Punishment in Global Peripheries, having organised its first five editions: online (2021); Oxford, UK (2022); Mumbai, India (2023); Santa F茅, Argentina (2024); and Cape Town, South Africa (2025). In 2026, this conference will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan. As part of his collaborative work, he has co-edited a Special Issue on Punishment in global peripheries (published in Theoretical Criminology), as well as three edited volumes: one on Southernising Criminology (Routledge), one on Punishment in Latin America (Emerald), and one on local and regional features of incarceration in Brazil (D'Pl谩cido, in Portuguese). He is currently co-editing two forthcoming Special Issues: one on Colonialism and Penality, scheduled for publication in Critical Criminology in June 2026; and one on Trends and Features of Punishment and Penal Control in the Global South, scheduled for publication in the International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy in June 2026.

Luiz holds a DPhil in Criminology from the University of Oxford (UK), and an MA in Critical Criminology from the Universities of Bologna and Padova (Italy). Prior to commencing his DPhil, he worked as a lawyer in Brazil, having completed an undergraduate degree in Law at Mackenzie Presbyterian University (Brazil).

Qualifications
  • DPhil in Criminology, University of Oxford
  • MA in Critical Criminology and Social Security, Universities of Bologna and Padova
     
Research interests
  • Sociology of punishment
  • Politics of crime control
  • Prisons
  • Southern and Global Criminologies
  • Comparative criminal justice
  • Crime and Punishment in the Global South
  • Knowledge production
Publications

Books

  • Dal Santo L (2024) A Puni莽茫o no Brasil: cr铆tica do giro punitivo. Tirant Lo Blanch.

Edited books

  • Dal Santo L & Sozzo M (Ed.) (2024) Punishment in Latin America: Explorations from the Margins. Emerald.
  • Dal Santo L & Sep煤lveda Penna C (Ed.) (2024) Southernising Criminology: Challenges, Horizons and Praxis. Routledge.
  • Dal Santo L & Giamberardino A (Ed.) (2024) Mapeando o encarceramento no Brasil. D'Pl谩cido.
  • Dal Santo L & Sozzo M (Ed.) (2023) Punishment in Global Peripheries. Theoretical Criminology journal.

Journal articles

  • Dal Santo L & Sozzo M (2023) . Theoretical Criminology, 27(4), 529-537.
  • Dal Santo L (2023) . Theoretical Criminology, 27(4), 597-618.
  • Dal Santo L (2022) . The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 61(4), 502-518.
  • Dal Santo L (2020) Populismo penal: o que n贸s temos a ver com isso?'.. Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Criminais, 168, 225-252.
  • Dal Santo L (2019) Cumprindo pena no Brasil: encarceramento em massa, pris茫o-dep贸sito e os limites das importa莽玫es te贸ricas sobre giro punitivo na realidade perif茅rica. Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Criminais, 151, 291-315.
  • Dal Santo L (2017) Racismo e controle social no Brasil: hist贸ria e presente do controle do negro por meio do sistema penal. Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Criminais, 138, 268-303.
  • Dal Santo L () . Revista Direito e Pr谩xis, 13(3), 1684-1705.
  • Dal Santo L () . Delito y Sociedad(53), e0053-e0053.
  • Dal Santo LP () . Revista da Faculdade de Direito da UFG, 44(1).
  • Dal Santo L () . Revista Direito, Estado e Sociedade(56).

Book chapters

  • Dal Santo L & Sozzo M (2024) In Dal Santo L & Sozzo M (Ed.), Punishment in Latin America Explorations from the Margins (pp. 1-18). Emerald Group Publishing
  • Zaffaroni ER, Skarbek D, Penna CS & Dal Santo L (2024) In Dal Santo L & Penna C (Ed.), Southernising Criminology (pp. 100-117). Routledge
  • Dal Santo L & Penna CS (2024) In Dal Santo L & Sep煤lveda Penna C (Ed.), Southernising Criminology (pp. 13-46). Routledge
  • Dal Santo L & Giamberardino A (2024) Mapeando o encarceramento no Brasil: uma introdu莽茫o In Dal Santo L & Giamberardino A (Ed.), Mapeando o encarceramento no Brasil (pp. 25-39). D'Pl谩cido
  • Dal Santo L (2024) Las c谩rceles brasile帽as en tiempos de encarcelamiento masivo: transformaciones ambivalentes In Mansilla MA & Dufraix Tapia R (Ed.), C谩rcel y Excluidos Sociales en Am茅rica Latina: Adultos mayores, discapacidad, g茅nero, migraci贸n y diversidad sexual Ril Editores
  • Dal Santo L (2023) In Cavalcanti R, Squires P & Waseem Z (Ed.), Southern and Postcolonial Perspectives on Policing, Security and Social Order (pp. 169-188). Briston University Press
  • Dal Santo L & Ferraz Jr J (2023) Necropol铆tica e sistema penal brasileiro: genoc铆dio institucionalizado contra negros In Rotta Almeida B, Cacicedo P & Pimentel E (Ed.), Sa煤de e mortalidade no sistema penal (pp. 50-68). Tirant Lo Blanch
  • Dal Santo LP (2022) , Guns, Gun Violence and Gun Homicides (pp. 329-348). Springer International Publishing
  • Penna CS & Dal Santo L () , Southernising Criminology (pp. 1-9). Taylor & Francis

Book reviews

  • Santo LD (2024) . Punishment & Society, 26(2), 435-437.
Teaching interests

Luiz has taught a range of modules across Criminology and Criminal Justice, including Contemporary Issues in Criminology; Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice; Introduction to Criminal Justice; Understanding Global Criminal Justice; Philosophy of Punishment; Punishment and Penal Policy; Crime and Globalisation; Urban Criminology; Southern Criminology; and Comparative Politics of Crime and Punishment

Teaching activities

UG modules:
Punishment and Penal Policy;
Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice;
Prisons, Prisoners, and their Families

PG modules:
Issues in Comparative Penology

Professional activities and memberships

Assistant Director, Centre for Criminological Research