Darfur and the Crime of Genocide

Cambridge Studies in Law and Society

by John Hagan

In 2004, the State Department gathered more than a thousand interviews from refugees in Chad that verified Colin Powell’s U.N. and congressional testimonies about the Darfur genocide. The survey cost nearly a million dollars to conduct and yet it languished in the archives as the killing continued, claiming hundreds of thousands of murder and rape victims and restricting several million survivors to camps. This book for the first time fully examines that survey and its heartbreaking accounts. It documents the Sudanese government’s enlistment of Arab Janjaweed militias in destroying black African communities. The central questions Why is the United States so ambivalent to genocide? Why do so many scholars deemphasize racial aspects of genocide? How can the science of criminology advance understanding and protection against genocide? This book gives a vivid firsthand account and voice to the survivors of genocide in Darfur.

Genres: Africa, History

296 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

John L. Hagan (born 1946) is an American sociologist focusing on criminology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L....


Also publishes as John L. Hagan

Reviews

[Allie Jeffus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had great statistics and really showed a detailed side of the genocide. I wish the book moved a little faster because some parts really dragged on.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book concretely demonstrates that the violence in Darfur was a crime of genocide committed via a coordinated effort of the Sudanese government, its military, and Arab militia groups. In parallel, the authors use criminological theories to offer causal explanations for the genocide in Darfur. It is a well-organized book that leaves the reader with very little doubt about the legal status of the violence.

On the downside, this book does obviously contain the authors' opinions about the United States, various disciplines of research, and politics. The book is evidence-based otherwise. It also gets fairly repetitive, and probably could have been about 50 pages shorter.

[Michaeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very devastating piece. From all the articles I've read on the issue, this book accounts for the most imagery. By far.
A serious crisis that has gone on for long enough and a country that needs to end it's civil wars.

[Morgan]

Devastating to read, yet a compelling study of how racial discrimination and biases causes some groups to be victims of or perpetrators to violence.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it presents a compelling argument but I don't fully understand why criminology needed to take up so much of the book and I felt that Chapter 8 was entirely unnecessary.