Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapter of this book. The book explores on cultural influences within criminology in 'Theorising war, law and crime'. It provides a critical insight into war and criminal justice by 'Linking war and criminal justice'. The book explores the vulnerability that can be caused by warfare, investigating 'War, sexual violence and visual trauma'. Despite emerging against a backcloth of the First and Second World Wars, criminology, and indeed its sub-discipline victimology, have yet to address war in the substantive ways demonstrated by other disciplines. As a discipline, criminology has been influenced by positivism from the outset and is undergirded by a conservative outlook on 'crime', social control and social order. Vincenzo takes up the reins of discussion within this introduction and looks to develop the problematic connection between war and crime further by aligning them with corporate crime and crimes of the powerful.