Editorial

by Thomas Gilly, ERCES

The articles that we have collected in this issue are related to three key-themes:

The first one is crime and religion; the second is terrorism and organized crime and the third one is related to the broad range of ethics and criminal justice.

It is possible to distinguish between theses key-issues, to consider either of the three and to study each independently from the other. In fact these three issues interact and are closely related one to each other. For argument’s sake the relation between terrorism and religion has come to the fore of the debate.

In this issue we have collected three articles that are related to crime and religion. Each of them focuses on a specific aspect. The first of the three articles that are related to crime and religion provides a focal centre on terrorism and religion; for the second the same relation is concerned in the prevention of biais / hate crime.

“Hijab of Blood: The role of Islam in Female Palestinian Terrorism”, by Dr Maria Alvanou, provides a focal center on a terrorist strategy that has been extremely used by Palestinian organizations against Israel since the beginning of the second ‘Intifada’. The author’s main concern is the fact that young women carrying out bombings considerably increased in number.

Social sciences, in particular criminology, are somewhat embarrassed about terrorism. Terrorism is an issue which has received far more consideration in social and political sciences than any other. And yet the various attempts made in order to explain terrorism did not lead to concluding results. For many scholars the results have to be evaluated with pessimism rather than with optimism. All the evidence suggests that the dilemma is due to social sciences’ and criminology’s failure to innovate.

“Hijab of Blood: The role of Islam in Female Palestinian Terrorism”, innovates in many regards:

The study brings the relation between terrorism and gender to the fore of the criminological debate. The author addresses the paradox that Islam, though influencing the Palestinian society to a patriarchal model, at the same time mobilizes women to engage in suicide terrorism. The article shows that both secular and religious fundamentalist terrorist groups use the systematic religious incitement as a means to fight the female terrorist’s’ fear of death and to dehumanize the target..

And finally it criticizes the construction of martyrdom.

“Martyrdom” is an inherent topic of moral crime talk. This issue comes rapidly to the fore of the ethical debate. M. Alvanou’s moral criticism pose a serious threat to the moral and political correctness of an intellectual taboo. From then on ethics becomes the public prosecutor of morals’ criminal usurpation.

For historical reasons, Germany is more than other European countries concerned with right wing violence, its handling and its prevention. This issue is at the heart

“The prevention of bias crimes in Germany. Results from a nationwide task group”, by Marc Coester and Professor Dieter Rössner presents an overview of results of a task group that has been working for the last three years in Germany in order to find new solutions and better concepts for the prevention of right wing violence. The authors provide us with substantial results of the task group. The fundamental significance of this topic for Germany is addressed.

The amount of right wing crime in Germany as registered by the police rose immensely between 1969 and 2002, demonstrates the importance of this problem and explains the requirement for new empirical research and for new practical solutions.

With these two articles we start our series of articles that provide a focal centre on anti-Semitism. At a first glance this issuer is not the major concern for the authors. And yet the articles’ topics are closely related to anti-Semitism.

For historical reasons anti-Semitism is traditionally associated with right-wing extremism. In contrast with other Western European Countries, namely France, this “classical figure is more than any other relevant for the actual state of Germany, but also for Russia and other Eastern European Countries. Wednesday, November 10, 2004, Mister Paul Spiegel, leader of Germany’s Jewish community. pointed to the recent election of a committed neo-Nazi into the far-right NPD's party leadership. The German Jewish community president urged a round table with government and representatives of civil society to discuss the problem (http://www.wjc.org.il/dwb/archive.cfm).

Terrorists use martyrdom as a means to legitimize their “fight for the just cause”.

“Hijab of Blood” brings martyrdom to the fore of the ethical debate. Anti-Zionism can no longer be legitimated with reference to “moral crime talk”, nor can it be thought as of “moral or political correctness”. Moral crime talk – despite its prominence – is no longer an ethical taboo.

Anti-Zionism is aimed at the destruction of Israel, not at the critics of Israeli’s governments.

In France, the relation between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has come to the fore of the debate. Any way we cannot exclude that anti-Zionism – after religion and after race – is the late-modern syndrome of anti-Semitism. In France, the importance of this issue is just becoming to be measured.[1]

Our series will provide for further discussion of this issue; we will collect articles that discuss the French case, but also the situation is it is in Russia and other Eastern European countries.

“Manusmriti: A Critique of the Criminal Justice Tenets in the Ancient Indian Hindu Code”, by Dr K Jaishankar and Ms.Debarati Haldar provides for a study in depth of the Manusmriti which is the Hindu code of ancient India, The authors address the nature of the code, its influence on the criminal justice system in ancient India and its relevance for the actual criminal justice system.. The present paper is a critical analysis of the criminal justice tenets found in the code.

This paper is a real treasure of Indian culture and legal ethics.

In his paper “Trans-national Organised Crime as Enterprise”, the Director of ICSP, Prague, Dr Miroslav Scheinost provides for an extremely precious theoretical and empirical discussion about the economic and social roots of organised crime. The paper addresses the nature of trans-national crime and points at the involvement of trans-national crime in both levels legality and illegality. The paper is very relevant for criminology and police research.

“Confronting Tourism Risk in an Age of Crime and Terrorism” by Rabbi Peter Tarlow faces one of the most important problems of our times : risk society and risk management. The author discusses this issue with special regards on the impact of terrorism upon the tourism industry. The shifting from paradigms that were traditionally inherent in tourism to new innovative paradigms of risk-management is at the heart of the paper. The requirement for a new and more secure tourism industry supposes an objective evaluation of the nature of terrorism. The paper is a fundamental contribution to risk-management.

We conclude our issue with “IRB and Cross Cultural Research in Criminal Justice in Mexico and the United States”, by Professor Rodrigo Murataya and Dr J. Michael Olivero

The paper provides for a substantial discussion about internal review boards that have developed on college campuses ostensibly to protect human subjects from harm.  

The authors address the history of these protections. They discuss the ethical and practical problems that are involved in the extension of rules being aimed at the protection of human against (abusive) medical practices to human subjects involved in social scientific research. Cross cultural research on the Mexican criminal justice system and research on undocumented immigrants.

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[1] Taguiff, P.-A., (2004), Prêcheurs de haine. Traversée de la judéophobie planétaire, Paris: Edition de Minuit. Gerstfeld, M. and Trigano, S.(2003), Les habits neufs de l'antisémitisme en Europe , Paris: Café Noir Eds.