Connecting Histories of Crime and Conflict
To complement the special issue “War Makes Monsters: Crime and Criminality in Times of Conflict,” we highlight articles probing the interconnectedness of war and crime, analyzing their complex relationship.
A common thread is that notions of crime and criminality are not fixed but constantly under negotiation, especially during moments of crisis and change, such as war. This is evident in Shannon Fogg’s discussion of the othering of Gypsies during World War II when the community found themselves criminalized and denounced for activities, such as refusing forced labor duties or using the black market, that many French people also engaged in without incurring the same levels of opprobrium. The vicissitudes of definitions of criminality are also exposed in Mette Harder’s analysis of the repeated purges of parliamentary députés, from all factions, amidst the rapidly shifting political sands of the 1790s. While Jérémie Foa explores the unstable context of the Wars of Religion where “suspects” abounded, enemies were often indistinguishable from friends, and the smallest choice, word, or gesture could carry fatal consequences.
Wars can create new laws and institutions. Governments are not, however, always fully in control of these processes as evidenced in Mary Louise Roberts’s discussion of the influx of American GIs into World War II Paris. So heavy were these soldiers’ sexual demands, they broke the existing system of legalized prostitution, redefining the lines between legal and illegal forms of sexual labor, with significant consequences for sex workers. As much as war can catalyze change, Amit Prakash reminds us to remain attentive to continuities. Studying police surveillance in Paris before, during, and after the Algerian War of Independence, he shows that persistent racist stereotyping rendered North Africans consistently “suspect” because of who they were rather than for any crimes they may have committed.
—Claire Eldridge and Julie M. Powell
