Atrocity Crimes as a Different Type of Crime?

Abstract This chapter posits that conceptual and experiential differences arise (and abound) between atrocity crime and ordinary common crime. Atrocity crime, in particular discrimination-based campaigns, tends to be collective in nature, thereby presenting the violence as individuals conforming to a wretched social norm. Ordinary common crime tends more to individual acts of deviance and transgression. Atrocity crimes are often crimes of hate and crimes of the state or state-like organization. This chapter argues that the international community is prosecuting atrocity crimes without first having developed a thorough criminology of mass violence, a suitable penology for perpetrators, or a thoughtful victimology for those aggrieved.