Criminology and genocide studies: Notes on what might have been and what still could be

Scholars of genocide and mass killings have proposed several theories expla ining how the behaviors of governments, political leaders, and ordinary cit izens contribute to extreme violence. Many of the explanatory constructs de veloped in these theories bear a striking resemblance to core concepts of c riminology or could be readily integrated with criminological ideas. As exa mples, this paper briefly describes the ideas of Herbert Kelman, Daniel Jon ah Goldhagen, and R.J. Rummel from the perspective of criminology and exami nes their applicability the recent genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. The conc lusion is that criminology, by largely ignoring the crime of genocide, has missed opportunities to both contribute to the field of genocide studies an d to improve the specification of its own ideas.