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British Journal of Criminology Special Issues

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50:4

Terrorism: Criminological Perspectives

The neglect of terrorism – a ‘signal crime’ par excellence – within ‘mainstream criminology’ is intriguing. The long-running paramilitary and military action in Northern Ireland almost entirely bypassed the world of UK and international ‘official criminology’. More recently, the War on Terror in UK has figured more prominently in criminology, as in the BJC Special Issue 49(5) of 2009. However, scholarly work which systematically examines the activities of terrorists and terrorist organisations was and still is rare, and case study and other empirical analyses are lacking among an abundance of more narrative, theoretical, or prescriptive work. This special issue explicitly seeks to close this gap by bringing together internationally leading scholars in the field who use a broad range of data in analysing terrorist activities and their impact on communities. The issue includes international perspectives and analyses from terrorist ‘hot spots’ across the globe. The authors look into the motives of past and contemporary terrorists, as well as into the impact of terrorism on policing in conflict zones. They analyse the concentration and focus of terrorist activities across the globe and during recent decades, and assess the chances of tracking and interrupting the flow of ‘threat finance’.

They compare the pathways of female suicide bombers to those of women imprisoned for other crimes, and analyse the potential for radicalisation in prison. This special issue presents a hoard of unique data and original analyses, and will hugely improve our empirical understanding of terrorist activities. The papers suggest thorough changes in widely held assumptions within the scientific community, the public and among politicians.

This special issue comprises of unique and original empirical work on terrorist activities and organisations, their strategies and motivation, as well as on the impact of terrorism on policing and communities. As such it stands out among the abundance of more narrative theoretical and prescriptive work that is still dominating criminological writing on terrorism, and will hugely help in the empirical understanding of terrorist activities. It brings together leading scholars in the field, and promotes international and comparative perspectives alongside in-depth case studies of terrorist activists, including female suicide bombers.

Papers will include:

Cross-national Patterns of Terrorism: Comparing Trajectories Total, Attributed and Fatal Attacks, 1970 to 2006.
Gary LaFree, Nancy A. Morris and Laura Dugan

Gender, Crime and Terrorism: The Case of Arab/Palestinian Women in Israel.
Anat Berko, Edna Erez and Julie Globokar

Analysis of Terrorist Action: The Assassination and Bombing Campaigns of ETA between 1980 and 2007.
Margaret A. Wilson, Angela Scholes and Elizabeth Brocklehurst

Police Involvement in Counter-Terrorism and Public Attitudes toward the Police in Israel: 1998 – 2007.
Tal Jonathan

Read the Table of Contents for this issue now. Just click through.

Previous Special Issues

49:5

Criminology and the War on Terror


Papers included:

The Transformation of Violence in Iraq
Penny Green and Tony Ward

Pre-Crime and Counter-Terrorism: Imagining Future Crime in the ‘War on Terror’
Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering

From the ‘Old’ to the ‘New’ Suspect Community: Examining the Impacts of Recent UK Counter-Terrorist Legislation
Christina Pantazis and Simon Pemberton

Prison Islam in the Age of Sacred Terror
Mark S. Hamm

Exceptionalism and the ‘War on Terror’: Criminology Meets International Relations
Claudia Aradau and Rens van Munster

Justice in a Time of Terror
Barbara Hudson

49:1

Moral Panics – 36 years on


Moral Panic: Its Origins in Resistance, Ressentiment and the Translation of Fantasy into Reality
Jock Young

Widening The Focus: Moral Panics as Moral Regulation
Chas Critcher

Failure To Launch: Why Do Some Social Issues Fail to Detonate Moral Panics?
Philip Jenkins

Suite Revenge?: The Shaping of Folk Devils and Moral Panics about White-Collar Crimes
Michael Levi

Moral Panic and Neo-Liberalism: The Case of Single Mothers on Welfare in Israel
Mimi Ajzenstadt

Legalizing Prostitution: Morality Politics in Western Australia
Ronald Weitzer

Organized Evil and the Atlantic Alliance: Moral Panics and the Rhetoric of Organized Crime Policing in America and Britain - FREE
Michael Woodiwiss and Dick Hobbs