section_path: Genocide studies/Criticism of the concept of genocide and alternatives
section_name: Criticism of the concept of genocide and alternatives
paragraph_text: Criticism of the concept of genocide and alternatives
  
  Most civilian killings in the twentieth century were not from genocide, which only applies to select cases. Alternative terms have been coined to describe processes left outside narrower definitions of genocide. Ethnic cleansing —the forced expulsion of a population from a given territory—has achieved widespread currency, although many scholars recognize that it frequently overlaps with genocide, even where Lemkin's definition is not used. Other terms have proliferated, such as Rudolph Rummel 's democide, for the killing of people by a government. Words like ethnocide, gendercide, politicide, classicide, and urbicide were coined for the destruction of particular types of groupings (ethnic groups, genders, political groups, social classes, and a particular locality).
  
  Historian A. Dirk Moses argues that because of its position as the "crime of crimes", the concept of genocide "blinds us to other types of humanly caused civilian death, like bombing cities and the ' collateral damage ' of missile and drone strikes, blockades, and sanctions ".