Criminology and the Study of International Crimes

This chapter argues that although criminology is an academic discipline that studies crime, it has neglected to study international crimes, and for this reason, it has hampered the quest to respond to the etiology of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The communal engagement element in the commission of international crimes creates difficulties for mainstream criminology theories to explain the reasons why a collective engages in committing mass atrocity crimes. Through case study analysis and a comparative research methodology, this chapter examines the scope of international crimes and selected national crimes that mainstream criminology studies and suggests an interdisciplinary theory in the criminology of international crimes that examines broader contexts out of which international crimes are born and carried out.