Blood Power And Bedlam

Blood, Power, and Bedlam examines the etiology of violations of international criminal law in four post-colonial African states. With a particular focus on genocide and crimes against humanity, an integrated theory is produced and historical, political, economic, and structural aspects are explored. The book's main intent is an analysis of the worst crimes humans commit and how, in the cases examined, they arise out of a post-colonial environment. Attention is given to existing or potential applications of international social control.

This book chronicles key contemporary developments in the social scientific study of various types of male-to-female abuse in rural places and suggests new directions in research, theory, and policy. The main objective of this book is not to simply provide a dry recitation of the extant literature on the abuse of rural women in private places. To be sure, this material is covered, but rural women’s experiences of crimes of the powerful like genocidal rape and corporate violence against female employees are also examined. Written by a celebrated expert on the subject, this book considers woman abuse in a broad context, covering forms of violence such as physical and sexual assault, coercive control genocidal rape, abortion bans, forced pregnancy, and corporate forms of violence. It offers a broad research agenda, that examines the multidimensional nature of violence against rural women. Drawing on decades of work in the shelter movement, with activist organizations, and doing government research, DeKeseredy punctuates the book with stories and voices of perpetrators and survivors of abuse. Additionally, what makes this book unique is that it focuses on the plight of rural women around the world and it introduces a modified version of Liz Kelly’s original continuum of sexual violence. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, women’s studies, cultural studies, policing, geography and all those interested in learning about the abuse women face in rural areas. Walter S. DeKeseredy is Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, Director of the Research Center on Violence, and Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University. He has published 26 books, over 100 refereed journal articles, and 90 scholarly book chapters on issues such as woman abuse, rural criminology, and criminological theory.

This book provides an analysis of how penal discourses are used to legitimate post-Cold War military interventions through three main case studies: Kosovo, Iraq and Libya. These cases reveal the operation of diverse modalities of punishment in extending the ambit of international liberal governance. The argument starts from an analysis of these discourses to trace the historical arc in which military interventions have increasingly been launched through reference to both the human rights discourse and humanitarian sentiments, and a desire to punish the perpetrators. The book continues with the analysis of practices involved in the post-intervention phase, looking at the ways in which states have been established as modes of governance (Kosovo), how punitive atmospheres have animated soldiers’ violence in the conduct of war (Iraq), and finally how interventions can expand moral control and a system of devolved surveillance in conjunction with both border control and the engagement of the International Criminal Court (Libya). In all these case, tensions and ambiguities emerge. These practices underscore how punitive intents were also present in the expansion of liberal governance, demonstrating how the rhetoric of punishment was useful in legitimating Western state powers and recomposing the borders of the liberal world at the periphery. War as Protection and Punishment ends with a number of critical comments on the diffusion of punitive discourse in the international arena, considering how issues of crime and justice have also animated, at least in part, the current engagement with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, politics and those interested in how penal discourses are used to legitimize military conventions.

Through a collection of essays by leading scholars in the field, State Crime offers a set of cases exemplifying state criminality along with various methods for controlling governmental transgressions.

This book adopts a critical criminological approach to analyze the production, representation and role of crime in the emerging international order. It analyzes the role of power and its influence on the dynamics of criminalization at an international level, facilitating an examination of the geopolitics of international criminal justice. Such an approach to crime is well-developed in domestic criminology; however, this critical approach is yet to be used to explore the relationship between power, crime and justice in an international setting. This book brings together contrasting opinions on how courts, prosecutors, judges, NGOs, and other bodies act to reflexively produce the social reality of international justice. In doing this, it bridges the gaps between the fields of sociology, criminology, international relations, political science, and international law to explore the problems and prospects of international criminal justice and illustrate the role of crime and criminalization in a complex, evolving, and contested international society.

This impressive collection of original essays explores the relationship between social conflict and the environment - a topic that has received little attention within criminology. The chapters provide a systematic and comprehensive introduction and overview of conflict situations stemming from human exploitation of environments, as well as the impact of social conflicts on the wellbeing and health of specific species and ecosystems. Largely informed by green criminology perspectives, the chapters in the book are intended to stimulate new understandings of the relationships between humans and nature through critical evaluation of environmental destruction and degradation associated with social conflicts occurring around the world. With a goal of creating a typology of environment-social conflict relationships useful for green criminological research, this study is essential reading for scholars and academics in criminology, as well as those interested in crime, law and justice.

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology is a collection of original essays specifically designed to offer students, faculty, policy makers, and others an in-depth overview of the most up-to-date empirical, theoretical, and political contributions made by critical criminologists around the world. Special attention is devoted to new theoretical directions in the field, such as cultural criminology, masculinities studies, and feminist criminologies. Its diverse essays not only cover the history of critical criminology and cutting edge theories, but also the variety of research methods used by leading scholars in the field and the rich data generated by their rigorous empirical work. In addition, some of the chapters suggest innovative and realistic short- and long-term policy proposals that are typically ignored by mainstream criminology. These progressive strategies address some of the most pressing social problems facing contemporary society today, and that generate much pain and suffering for socially and economically disenfranchised people. The Handbook explores up-to-date empirical, theoretical, and political contributions, and is specifically designed to be a comprehensive resource for undergraduate and post-graduate students, researchers, and policy makers.

The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. At its genesis the ICC was expected to help prevent atrocities from arising or escalating by ending the impunity of leaders and administering punishment for the commission of international crimes. More than a decade later, the ICC’s ability to achieve these broad aims has been questioned, as the ICC has reached only two guilty verdicts. In addition, some of the world’s major powers, including the United States, Russia and China, are not members of the ICC. These issues underscore a gap between the ideals of prevention and deterrence and the reality of the ICC’s functioning. This book explores the gaps, schisms, and contradictions that are increasingly defining the International Criminal Court, moving beyond existing legal, international relations, and political accounts of the ICC to analyse the Court from a criminological standpoint. By exploring the way different actors engage with the ICC and viewing the Court through the framework of late modernity, the book considers how gaps between rhetoric and reality arise in the work of the ICC. Contrary to much existing research, the book examines how such gaps and tensions can be productive as they enable the Court to navigate a complex, international environment driven by geopolitics. The International Criminal Court and Global Social Control will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced practitioners in international law, international relations, criminology, and political science. It will also be of use in upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to international criminal justice and globalization.