Special issue on terrorism and responses to terrorism

Politicians in the United States have invoked the term “war” to develop national support for an all-out attack on criminal behavior on at least three separate occasions since World War II: the wars on crime, drugs, and terrorism. In each case, the word has been used as a metaphor to underscore the conviction that society is involved in a pitched battle and that there is no room for acquiescence or compromise. The implications of the war metaphor or a detailed examination of criminology’s role in these three campaigns is beyond the scope of this short introduction. However, I argue that several important similarities can be found across the three major crime-related political wars of the past century and that there is at least one important difference: Academic criminology was far more engaged in the wars on crime and drugs than it has been in the war on terrorism.