State Crime in Plain Sight: German Criminology and the Crimes of the National Socialist State – A Tribute to Herbert Jäger (1928-2014)

Abstract

Throughout the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1949), state crime was in plain sight not only to the German public, but also to those whose profession it was to analyse crime and justice. However, German criminologists were notably absent. This contribution addresses the leading paradigm of criminology and the ensuing role of criminologists that had made them complicit in the crimes of the Nazi state, and after 1945 forestalled recognition and acknowledgment for nearly two decades. The article then pays tribute to criminologist Herbert Jäger, who was one of the first to confront his colleagues with a path-breaking account of the crimes of the Nationalist Socialist state, based on an exceptional methodology. His “Crimes under Totalitarian Rule” is a foundation for any criminology of state crime as he uncovers the core mechanisms of state crime “bottom-up”.