Research and development in criminal law and criminology

Research and development in criminal law and criminology

Criminology of International Offenses: Challenges in Studying International Crimes

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Behzad Razavifard
Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/jclc.2025.2050931.1152
Abstract
Criminology, as one of the interdisciplinary sciences, has taken its most important subject of study—crime—from criminal law. Therefore, it is unsurprising that criminologists initially focused on studying the etiology of crimes whose definitions and governing principles are precisely established in domestic criminal law. Compared to the study of domestic crimes, criminologists have been delayed in examining the etiology, typology of perpetrators and victims, and methods of preventing international crimes. Accordingly, in this research, we aim to highlight the necessity of focusing on transnational criminology. By examining the characteristics of international crimes and offenses, referencing the criminological tendencies present in the Statute of the International Criminal Court, articulating the complexities and challenges of studying in this field, and determining the scope of transnational criminological studies, we review the challenges facing this area of study. In this brief review, it was determined that the extensive and collective nature of international crimes has distinguished the quantity and quality of criminological studies in this field. Initially, to facilitate better analysis, we revisited concepts such as war and peace, the distinction between crimes and international offenses, defeat and victory, and international criminal responsibility. We then examined the characteristics of international crimes and offenses, including their extensive scale, collective nature, occurrence with premeditation, and the necessity of considering these crimes within the context of critical criminology and state crimes—due to the inability of conventional criminological approaches to effectively analyze these project-oriented crimes. Among the challenges of criminological analysis of international crimes, the following can be mentioned: the identity-based nature of these crimes; the distinction between ethical and unethical analysis of international criminal behaviors; the challenges of criminalizing and penalizing these crimes; the high dark figure of crime (i.e., unreported crimes); the difficulty and complexity of collecting statistics and data; issues concerning the presence of witnesses and victims in the judicial process; and finally, the unfamiliarity of Western criminological literature with the cultural environments in which these crimes occur—which are sometimes Eastern or Southern regions—and even within the Western culture itself, the occurrence of such crimes can be novel, unexpected, and astonishing.
Keywords
Critical Criminology
State Crimes
Mass Crimes
Statute of the International Criminal Court
Study Challenges
Subjects

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Research and development in criminal law and criminology
Volume 2, Issue 3 - Serial Number 3
August 2025
Pages 197-241