Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, The Institute for Research and Development in Humanities (SAMT), Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The Israeli aggression against Iran in June 2025—targeting defense infrastructure, military personnel, civilians including scientists, children, and women, as well as hospitals, schools, and national media—was not merely a military confrontation but a turning point in the collective and psychological victimization of Iranian society. The ensuing fear, urban displacement, partial economic collapse, and existential anxiety fractured Iran’s cultural and moral fabric, creating conditions for new forms of post-war violence. This study examines how collective victimization, at cultural and psychological levels, reproduces violence and norm-breaking in the post-war context, and explores the relationship between symbolic violence in media, political discourse, and everyday life (routine activity criminology) and the escalation of violent crime.
The central hypothesis posits that aggression —and the enduring fear of its recurrence—erodes social cohesion, normalizes aggression, and embeds violent cultural patterns into civic life, generating a cyclical process of victimization and offending wherein society itself perpetuates violence. From a cultural criminological perspective, this cycle reflects a normalization of deviance and a redefinition of social power through violence. Breaking it requires a shift in Iran’s criminal policy from a security-based to a cultural and restorative approach at legislative, judicial, and executive levels—prioritizing the symbolic reconstruction of trust, hope, and
Keywords
- War Victims
- Cultural Criminology
- Security-oriented Criminal Policy
- Reproduction of Violence
- Israeli Aggression
Main Subjects
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