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Abstract

Logos, signifying reason and rational discourse in Greek philosophy, is often promoted as the foundation of science. Logos formed the central theme of the 2025 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology (ESC), and the more recent ESC Presidential Address. These events exposed the contested faultlines in European criminology on the genocide in Gaza, and the presupposed boundaries between science and politics. We critique the dominance of logos in mainstream criminology discourse, and its misuse within the ESC to silent dissent and suppress moral appeals for Palestinian rights. We highlight three examples of this form of logos at work: false claims to scientific neutrality, boundary policing, and the entrenchment of a prevailing epistemic order. Against the misuse of logos as ideology, we call for a critical criminology of ethos and pathos as a countervailing force: ethics and passions which implicate science as inseparable from politics, and which call attention to criminology’s underlying social justice aimss.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Justice, Power and Resistance. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Ngan, J. , Fatsis, L. & Pali, B. (2026). Against logos as ideology: towards a critical criminology of ethos and pathos in the age of genocide. Justice, Power and Resistance, pp. 1-11. is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1332/26352338Y2026D000000074
Publisher Keywords:	Palestine; genocide; social justice; academic complicity; critical criminology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science J Political Science > JZ International relations
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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