ABSTRACT
The study of war crime might still seem a more legitimate, though sparsely researched, area for criminology than war itself. The distinction between war and crime is a product of the evolution of the modern state. Even in intra-state 'new wars' the most immediate issue may not be that war crimes or even crimes against humanity have been committed, but that communities, ethnic groups, or warlord-led armies are in conflict. The inequality, poverty, armed violence and shadow economies of the conflict zones of the global south make their way to northern industrial cities through global terrorist and organised crime networks, undocumented migrations and internet communications. Various mixtures of criminal justice, aimed at arrest and prosecution, and military action, aimed at containment and neutralisation of equally militarised gangs and criminal militias, prevail, depending on context. European jurisdictions attempted to maintain criminal justice orientations to terrorism with Red Army Faction in Germany and the Red Brigades in Italy.
