Horrendous man-made mass sufferings, like widespread killings, torture, rape or expulsion, although empirically easy to recognise, 'encounter' a selective and in many respects unpredictable process of official acknowledgement in international politics and judiciary. However, finding the proper means with which to respond effectively to large-scale victimisation (LSV) requires universal recognition of gross human rights violations. Understanding LSV as a social construct 'produced' at various institutions by decision-making actors can help to facilitate an unbiased approach to preventing mass suffering. International criminal justice (ICJ) plays a key-role in this process of determining dimensions of criminal large-scale victimisation.

This paper attempts to shed some light on the underlying dimensions of this judicial construction process resulting in patterns of criminal LSV. For the sake of a more complex understanding, criminal LSV is considered in the context of global governance and is then related to the – narrower – concept of the purpose and goals of international criminal justice. On this basis some dimensions and emerging patterns of criminal LSV within the ICTY-jurisprudence are then discussed within the prosecutorial and adjudicative construction process. Finally, some issues for further research into humanitarian victimology will be identified in light of the perspective developed.