Genocide, the intentional destruction of a specific group, is an important subject for state crimes, yet it remains under explored within the discipline and genocide studies have tended to be the remit of historians and theologians. Social scientists rarely turned their attention to the study of this particular type of criminality until the 1970s and Hirsch suggests that even today sociological attention to this topic has at best grown from almost non-existent to scarcely existent.
Genocide, the intentional destruction of a specific group, is an important subject for scholars of state crimes, yet it remains underexplored within the discipline. In light of the increasing pervasiveness of genocide in the twentieth century, it is perhaps surprising that genocide studies have tended to be the remit of historians and theologians. Social scientists rarely turned their attention to the study of this particular type of criminality until the 1970s (Fein, 1979; Horowitz, 1982:3; Bauman, 1989:3, Fein 1993:5; Fein, 2002:75). Hirsch (1995: 75) suggests that even today sociological attention to this topic has at best grown from almost nonexistent to scarcely existent.
Genocide, the intentional destruction of a specific group, is an important subject for state crimes, yet it remains under explored within the discipline and genocide studies have tended to be the remit of historians and theologians. Social scientists rarely turned their attention to the study of this particular type of criminality until the 1970s and Hirsch suggests that even today sociological attention to this topic has at best grown from almost non-existent to scarcely existent.
