The Crime of All Crimes: Toward a Criminology of Genocide

by Nicole Rafter

Overview

Cambodia. Rwanda. Armenia. Nazi Germany. History remembers these places as the sites of unspeakable crimes against humanity, and indisputably, of genocide. Yet, throughout the twentieth century, the world has seen many instances of violence committed by states against certain groups within their borders—from the colonial ethnic cleansing the Germans committed against the Herero tribe in Africa, to the Katyn Forest Massacre, in which the Soviets shot over 20,000 Poles, to anti-communist mass murders in 1960s Indonesia. Are mass crimes against humanity like these still genocide? And how can an understanding of crime and criminals shed new light on how genocide—the “crime of all crimes”—transpires?

In The Crime of All Crimes, criminologist Nicole Rafter takes an innovative approach to the study of genocide by comparing eight diverse genocides—large-scale and small; well-known and obscure—through the lens of criminal behavior. Rafter explores different models of genocidal activity, reflecting on the popular use of the Holocaust as a model for genocide and ways in which other genocides conform to different patterns. For instance, Rafter questions the assumption that only ethnic groups are targeted for genocidal “cleansing," and she also urges that actions such as genocidal rape be considered alongside traditional instances of genocidal violence. Further, by examining the causes of genocide on different levels, Rafter is able to construct profiles of typical victims and perpetrators and discuss means of preventing genocide, in addition to delving into the social psychology of genocidal behavior and the ways in which genocides are brought to an end. A sweeping and innovative investigation into the most tragic of events in the modern world, The Crime of All Crimes will fundamentally change how we think about genocide in the present day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479859481
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	03/29/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Nicole Rafter was Professor Emeritus of Criminology at Northeastern University. Her publications include The Crime of All Crimes: Toward a Criminology of Genocide, The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime, and, with Michelle Brown, Criminology Goes to the Movies. In 2009, Rafter was awarded the Sutherland Award by the American Society of Criminology for outstanding contributions to the discipline.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

1 Genocide, Criminology, and Evolution of the "Crime of Crimes": The Katyn Forest Genocide, 1940 1

2 What Kind of a Crime Is Genocide?: Capsule Summaries of Eight Genocides 24

3 The Big Picture: The Macro Dynamics of Genocide: The Herero Genocide, 1904-1907 54

4 The Emotional Dynamics of Genocide: Meso-Level Analyses: The Indonesian Genocide, 1965-1966 80

5 Extermination Up Close and Personal: Genocide on the Micro Level: The Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979 106

6 Mobilization for Destruction: The Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923 The Nazi Genocide of the Disabled, 1939-1945 131

7 Gender and Genocide: The Rwandan Genocide, 1994 152

8 How Do Genocides End? Do They End?: The Guatemalan Genocide, 1981-1983 181

9 Treating Genocide as a Crime 202

Appendix A Twentieth-Century Genocides 229

Appendix B Case-Study Questions 235

Notes 239

References 267

Index 291

About the Author 299

Editorial Reviews

"Nicole Rafters newest and sadly her last book is an important contribution to the literature. It is also an urgent call to criminologists to no longer avert their gaze from the crime of crimes."

American Journal of Sociology

"The Crime of All Crimesis arguably the most comprehensive criminological treatment of genocide to date."

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"Provides afundamental point of departure for an immensely consequential project for the field of criminologygoing forward in the twenty-first century contributing to the understanding of genocide, and ideally to our collective ability to prevent the occurrence of this dreadful form of crime."

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews

"In this thoughtful book, Nicole Rafter challenges existing claims about the nature of genocide, weaving together a complex new understanding of crime, war, and violence. A landmark reframing in the criminology of genocide."

John Braithwaite

"This book sets the long overdue foundation for a criminology of genocide by masterfully peeling back the many layers of a century long unfolding of eight historic genocides. Nicole Rafter makes it impossible to ignore the importance of the topic of genocide to a field that has too long averted its gaze."

John Hagan

"In The Crime of all Crimes, Nicole Rafter brings a criminologists eye to bear on the topic of genocide. She seeks to unsettle old ways of thinking about genocide even as, through a comparison of eight cases, she offers a new framework for analysis, one that links to the issue of prevention. Her criminological insights are sure to be of interest to those working in the field of genocide studies."

Alex Laban Hinton

"Nicole Rafter’s newest and sadly her last book is an important contribution to the literature. It is also an urgent call to criminologists to no longer avert their gaze from the crime of crimes."- American Journal of Sociology

"Provides a fundamental point of departure for an immensely consequential project for the field of criminology going forward in the twenty-first century – contributing to the understanding of genocide, and ideally to our collective ability to prevent the occurrence of this dreadful form of crime."- Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews

“In this thoughtful book, Nicole Rafter challenges existing claims about the nature of genocide, weaving together a complex new understanding of crime, war, and violence. A landmark reframing in the criminology of genocide.”-John Braithwaite,author of Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation

“ The Crime of All Crimes is arguably the most comprehensive criminological treatment of genocide to date.”- Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"In The Crime of all Crimes , Nicole Rafter brings a criminologist’s eye to bear on the topic of genocide. She seeks to unsettle old ways of thinking about genocide even as, through a comparison of eight cases, she offers a new framework for analysis, one that links to the issue of prevention. Her criminological insights are sure to be of interest to those working in the field of genocide studies."-Alex Laban Hinton,author of Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide

"This book sets the long overdue foundation for a criminology of genocide by masterfully peeling back the many layers of a century long unfolding of eight historic genocides.
Nicole Rafter makes it impossible to ignore the importance of the topic of genocide to a field that has too long averted its gaze."-John Hagan,co-author of Darfur and the Crime of Genocide

From the Publisher

2015-12-20
A criminologist attempts to understand genocide and its etiology. Rafter (Emerita, Criminology/Northeastern Univ.; Criminology Goes to the Movies: Crime Theory and Popular Culture, 2011, etc.) restricts her study to eight of the more than 60 genocides (as defined by the U.N.) of the 20th century to find what, if anything, may be common to all such profound crimes. She examines the German elimination of the Herero people of Africa, the Turkish genocide of Armenians, the Nazi doctors' murders of the disabled, the Russian Katyn Forest massacre in Poland, Suharto's rampage in Indonesia, Pol Pot's killings in Cambodia, the genocide of the indigenous Mayans in Guatemala, and the Hutu war against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The author does not include the Holocaust in general, which "is treated exhaustively elsewhere"; her book, otherwise detailed, is haunted by the omission. In the analysis of her selected representative instances of killing on a large scale, Rafter does find some similarities. Genocides, for example, thrive during war and unrest. They are often homegrown and lack protectors for the victims, who are dehumanized as vermin, infidels, or subhuman creatures. In half the sample, rape was a favored tactic, and Rafter gives special attention to gender. Furthermore, genocide operates much like organized crime, with recidivism likely. The crime ends when victims, who either have fled or are dead, are no more and outside forces eventually intervene. Suggested cures—e.g., stern warnings to perpetrators or some action by the U.N.—are stained with futility. The author's text, sporadically describing the particular horrors of each case study in full academic form complete with charts, citations, and scholarly formality, cries for more warmth. "When all attempts at interpretation have ended," the author bleakly concludes, "there is still something mysterious left over, something so dreadful that it cannot be explained." A comparative criminological approach to genocide, bloodless in pursuit of scientific inquiry and most appropriate for students and specialists.

Kirkus Reviews