Private Security and Armed Conflict

A Case Study of the Scorpions during the Mass Killings in Former Yugoslavia

Bibliographic Data

ID8400938
AuthorsSamuel Tanner (0000-0003-3742-2680, Université de Montréal, corresponding author), Massimiliano Mulone
Year2013
Volume53
Issue1
Pages41-58
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjc/azs053
OpenAlexW2314606681
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited19

Based on a case study on the metamorphosis of a private security company responsible for the protection of oil wells during the Yugoslav Serbo–Croat conflict that became an armed band—the Scorpions—we show that this type of organization crystallizes mutually beneficial games that play out between a central power and those involved in local crime of low intensity. These organizations constitute the central players in a politicization of civilian crime and a privatization of political crime—genocide and crimes against humanity constituting the extreme forms. The involvement of private actors such as the Scorpions in armed conflict is considered in the fusion of instrumental and normative logic—a common element in all forms of mercenarism.

Armed conflict · Crimes against humanity · Criminology · Element (criminal law) · Genocide · Humanity · International law · Normative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · War crime · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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