Book Review: The crime of all crimes: Toward a criminology of genocide

• Author: Alomosh Ahmad Falah
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567717721295
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Rafter, N. (2016).

The crime of all crimes: Toward a criminology of genocide. New York, NY: New York University press.

320 pp. $35 (hardcover), ISBN 9781479859481.

Reviewed by: Alomosh Ahmad Falah, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

DOI: 10.1177/1057567717721295

Professor Nicole Rafter is an active researcher in the area of criminology. She is the author of

many books including the Criminal Brain and Criminology Goes in the Movies.Shehasalso

translated the major criminological works of Cesare Lombroso and published over 50 articles. In

2009, she was awarded the Sutherland Award by the American Society of Criminology for

outstanding contributions to the discipline; other honors includ e a Fulbright fellowship and several

fellowships to Oxford University.

Genocide studies are rapidly growing today. Scholars from different disciplines are trying to

understand genocide, yet it is well-known that genocide has remained the least researched crime. In

this book, Professor Rafter provides, as a criminologist, a profound investigation into criminological

methods and theories to understand genocide. Rafter’s book will fundamentally change how we

think about genocide today. She shows that criminology has been always deeply engaged with

politics and social justice. In this book, she explores criminology potential to address all sorts of

social problems. The book clear ly demonstrates that genocide is a crime at heart. It examines

genocide as a generic phenomenon and applies comparative criminology to determine what geno-

cide looks like. The comparative analysis builds on a detailed exploration of eight diverse genocides

occurring throughout the 20th century. It should be pointed out that several genocide studies tried to

explore a single genocide and derived general conclusion of genocide type without paying due

attention to other different types of genocide. Rafter’s study has been conducted intuitively and

followed rather nontraditional methods of data collection and analysis. She has provided an excel-

lent purposive analysis based on a comprehensive study of genocides that occurred over the last

century. One of the merits of her analysis is that she has used a good strategy of mixing genocide

stories with conclusions about genocide in general in order to strike a balance between the individual

and the general, the idiosyncratic and the average.

A further merit of the book is that its research design has been thought of deeply. The writer chose

a sample of eight genocides carefully through looking at a comprehensive list of genocides in a

specific time frame, the period between 1900 and 2000. The time frame offers a good starting point

as the genocides which occurred before 1900 were poorly documented while the year 2000 provided

a cutoff point by rounding off the era. The book truly covered the chosen eight genocides in

sufficient breadth and depth. In addition, the writer did an excellent selection of the eight genocides

to fit the definition of such a crime with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, religious, or

political group. The selection of sample genocides has gone through a rigorous, systematic process

of examining the degree of documentation, type, chronological and geographical spread, and pro-

portionality of the sample. Then, after deciding on the sample, the writer went on to examine the

most detailed and documented genocides to better understand, then she developed case study

questions to analyze the genocides in detail.

The writer stresses on the importance of understanding the evolution of genocide. Genocide that

is a dynamic rather than a static process was often precipitated by colonialism. Genocide drew on

imperialism, nationalism, and grand ideologies of race and ethnicity to justify atrocities. However,

genocide is linked, today, with decolonization and the efforts of postcolonial states to establish

themselves as homogenous nations. It may be further noted that the nature of genocide and its

location have changed. There has been a global shift in genocide in the mid and late 20th century as

294 International Criminal Justice Review 27(4)