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Criminology's Third War: Special Issue on Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism

Abstract:
Politicians in the United States have invoked the term “war” to develop national support for an all-out attack on criminal behavior on at least three separate occasions since World War II: the wars on crime, drugs, and terrorism. In each case, the word has been used as a metaphor to underscore the conviction that society is involved in a pitched battle and that there is no room for acquiescence or compromise. The implications of the war metaphor or a detailed examination of criminology’s role in these three campaigns is beyond the scope of this short introduction. However, I argue that several important similarities can be found across the three major crime-related political wars of the past century and that there is at least one important difference: academic criminology was far more engaged in the wars on crime and drugs than it has been in the war on terrorism

Publication Information

Full Citation:

LaFree, Gary. 2009. "Criminology's Third War: Special Issue on Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism." Criminology & Public Policy 8 (August): 431-444. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/criminologys-third-…

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