The continued insignificance of genocide in criminological inquiry

Abstract

This study aimed to explore publications appearing in criminology journals that studied the crime-type of genocide. The study of crime encompasses a wide range of topics. Largely, it is confined to traditional forms of crime like assault, murder, rape, robbery, burglary, and theft that take place at the local level. Criminologists have been studying international crimes, such as human trafficking, terrorism, piracy on the high seas, and wildlife trafficking amongst other crimes that span geo-political boundaries. What remains somewhat a mystery is the sparse research by criminologists worldwide on the crime of genocide. Our research explored the presence of studies on this crime-type in 17 international and United States (US) criminology English-language, peer-reviewed journals. Our findings demonstrate a continued and distressing lack of research published in top criminology journals thus indicating a void in the literature. While our findings show a slight increase in publications on the crime of genocide since Yacoubian’s (2000) work, the contributions that criminology provides to our understanding of the “crime of all crimes” remains insignificant. Criminologists are uniquely positioned to analyze crime-events and then to build crime-specific interventions to reduce genocidal practices from taking root.