Introduction: Counter-Terrorism and the ‘Contagion Thesis’

This chapter outlines the motivation for the research, which arose from concerns about the impact of counter-terrorism on the direction of travel of the criminal justice system more broadly, and in particular a perceived lacuna in the criminological literature concerning the influence of counter-terrorism on European crime control policy. It also operationalises the ‘contagion’ concept as it is examined in the book and provides a justification for the three case studies selected, namely, the UK, France and Poland. The chapter concludes with an outline of the plan of the book.