The Crime of All Crimes : : Toward a Criminology of Genocide / / Nicole Rafter.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Complete eBook-Package 2016
• VerfasserIn: Rafter, Nicole,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Cambodia. Rwanda. Armenia. Nazi Germany. History remembers these places as the sites of unspeakable crimes against humanity, and indisputably, of genocide. Yet, throughout the twentieth century, the world has seen many instances of violence committed by states against certain groups within their borders-from the colonial ethnic cleansing the Germans committed against the Herero tribe in Africa, to the Katyn Forest Massacre, in which the Soviets shot over 20,000 Poles, to anti-communist mass murders in 1960s Indonesia. Are mass crimes against humanity like these still genocide? And how can an understanding of crime and criminals shed new light on how genocide-the “crime of all crimes”-transpires? In The Crime of All Crimes, criminologist Nicole Rafter takes an innovative approach to the study of genocide by comparing eight diverse genocides--large-scale and small; well-known and obscure-through the lens of criminal behavior. Rafter explores different models of genocidal activity, reflecting on the popular use of the Holocaust as a model for genocide and ways in which other genocides conform to different patterns. For instance, Rafter questions the assumption that only ethnic groups are targeted for genocidal “cleansing," and she also urges that actions such as genocidal rape be considered alongside traditional instances of genocidal violence. Further, by examining the causes of genocide on different levels, Rafter is able to construct profiles of typical victims and perpetrators and discuss means of preventing genocide, in addition to delving into the social psychology of genocidal behavior and the ways in which genocides are brought to an end. A sweeping and innovative investigation into the most tragic of events in the modern world, The Crime of All Crimes will fundamentally change how we think about genocide in the present day.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- PREFACE -- 1. Genocide, Criminology, and Evolution of the “Crime of Crimes” -- 2. What Kind of a Crime Is Genocide? -- 3. The Big Picture: The Macro Dynamics of Genocide -- 4. The Emotional Dynamics of Genocide: Meso-Level Analyses -- 5. Extermination Up Close and Personal: Genocide on the Micro Level -- 6. Mobilization for Destruction -- 7. Gender and Genocide -- 8. How Do Genocides End? Do They End? -- 9. Treating Genocide as a Crime -- APPENDIX A. Twentieth-Century Genocides -- APPENDIX B. Case-Study Questions -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR