ABSTRACT
Despite recent and important discussions of the descent into ‘barbarism’ in twentieth century Europe (Anderson 1990; Hobsbawm 1994a, 1994b; Ignatieff 1994; Meštrovic 1993, 1996) and the incidence and ferocity of wars and ethnic conflicts which show no sign of abating (Holsti 1996; Wallensteen and Sollenberg 1996), contemporary European criminology remains largely aloof and unmoved by these issues.1 The disinclination of contemporary criminology to foreground war and armed conflict is all the more astonishing when one considers (a) that as an empirical area of study, war offers a dramatic example of massive violence and victimization in extremis; (b) that these acts of violence and violations of human rights are accomplished inter alia through state action-which some would treat, specifically, as an instance of state crime (Cohen 1993, 1995a), (c) that they often also involve concerted as well as individual (often gender-specific) human action and collusion-akin, in many ways to issues treated in ‘subcultural’ criminology (Stiglmayer 1994; African Rights 1995b, 1995c); (d) that war and states of emergency usher in massive increases in social regulation, punishment and ideological control (Bonger 1935;2 Jamieson 1988, 1996; Müller 1991; Rusche and Kirchheimer 1939), new techniques of surveillance (Dandeker 1990; Giddens 1987) and, with that, a corresponding derogation of civil rights (Durkheim 1992:56; Simpson 1992; Stammers 1983).
