“Death flies down”: the bombing of civilians and the paradox of international law

As the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh (who also flew combat missions in the Pacific theatre during World War II) noted, when a bomber pilot presses the button, death does indeed fly down, and the pilot remains remote from the destruction. And as the history of bombing reveals, the victim at the other end is more likely than with any other instrument of war to be a noncombatant or a civilian (Lindqvist, 2000). The purpose of this chapter is to examine this form of victimization from a criminological perspective.