ABSTRACT

Criminology throughout its short history has been overwhelmingly concerned with domestic crime and criminal justice within the internal life of liberal democratic societies. This chapter explores that context, and consider how contemporary globalizing forces have influenced criminology’s belated engagement with questions of human rights and the challenges these forces pose for both criminology and the human rights movement. Criminology devoted most of its attention to crimes that disturbed the domestic peace of the liberal democratic societies that nurtured its development. Contemporary globalization has seen rapid acceleration in the mobility of people, goods, capital and ideas across national borders and the growing interconnectedness of economic and political systems. The recent trend to approach the threat of violence in all its various forms – armed conflicts, abuses by states, organized criminal violence, homicide and violence against women – as a global human security issue represents a significant shift in thinking, reflecting the novelty of challenges posed by globalization.