ABSTRACT
Criminalisation is a process of social construction that creates the ‘social reality’ of crime, involving both a formal instrumental legal process and the informal social reality it shapes. The criminalisation of political expression is of particular importance for conflict analysis because it directly shapes the nature of conflict undermining the ability of actors to find a peaceful resolution to their disagreement, or potentially enhancing it depending on how it operates. This chapter accordingly develops a typology distinguishing between three broad and interrelated ‘targets’ of criminalisation: the criminalisation of political activities (CPA); the criminalisation of political identity (CPI); and the criminalisation of political violence (CPV). CPA is distinct as it is targeted against specific political behaviours such as protests, strikes, publications, and political meetings. In contrast, CPI targets actors themselves by criminalising particular ideologies, cultural practices, political views, or symbols. CPV relates to the criminalisation of political violence, which includes any form of physical violence motivated by a political ideology or objective. In this way this chapter sets out a new theoretical framework to analyse the relationship between criminalising political expression and conflict transformation.
