S. Walklate and R. McGarry, Criminology and War

In this new edited volume, distinguished contributors illustrate the context, process and outcomes of conflict in ways that cumulatively "transgress the borders" of "traditional" criminological concerns, and in doing so, follow the injunction of Ruth Jamieson whose 1998 work of the same name is one well-spring for the collection as a whole. The editors introduce the book with an informative appraisal of criminology's general approach to war, noting the early (pre-1950) and sometimes surprisingly extensive contributions of Bonger, Mannheim, Glueck and Sutherland, and bring us via the radical and the critical to the subject of war in state crime research. The book then follows a tripartite structure. In Part 1 ("Theorising war, law and crime"), Vincenzo Ruggiero explores the sacred nature, aesthetics and functions of warfare, and restates criminology's culpable ignorance and disinterest. David Whyte takes on the global arms trade, showing how key players collude with states to create "regimes of permission" that tacitly define acceptable norms of mass violence; and Emma Murray discusses how the ambivalent and understudied veteran soldier can be seen as both a traumatizing perpetrator and a traumatized victim. In Part 2 ("Linking war and criminal justice"), Zoe Alker and Barry Godfrey undertake an archival analysis of English court data to argue that juridically endorsed wartime "pressganging" composed both a diversion from prosecution and an important court disposal that exerted important effects on domestic crime rates. The historical turn is continued with Ruth Jamieson's vivid portrayal of the institutional dynamics framing Irish Republican prisoners' collective defiance of the British authorities in "troubles"-era Northern Ireland, and William Brown returns to the veteran soldier to analyse the US experience of trauma, dislocation and abandonment frequently experienced upon demobilization. Part 3 ("War, sexual violence and visual trauma") begins with Christopher Mullins and Nishanth Visagaratnams' harrowing expose of the complexities of gendered violence that both echo and amplify the pre-war cultural and political position of women. Wayne Morrison then analyses the visual image in wartime as a medium for framing "(un)civilised space" and discusses its possibilities as a modality for exploring the emotions of witnessing and reflecting upon atrocity. Finally, the editors themselves explore the representation of the injured

Criminology · Sociology · Economic Sanctions and International Relations

• Making Genocide Unthinkable

  Open Access•A Woolford•Critical Criminology•2006

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