We have shown how Girard theorises violence as originarily linked to the sacred and the sacrificial crisis. Reference was made to his claim that in traditional societies, the sacrifice of a scapegoat was intended to end violence – at least for a time. In following on from this, the current chapter will address the way that Christ on the Cross (Crucifixion) becomes a revelation of the scandal of mimetic violence as the unjust killing of the scapegoat. Christ's Crucifixion also unites image and violence.

Girard argues that only Christian culture is ‘non-sacrificial’, which means that it favours the victim over the persecutor and that, as we have previously noted, Christianity is the basis of Western law. Girard is not alone in this view, one in which law and the defence of the victim go hand in hand. As a historian of law writes:

For Girard, there is a fundamental relation between the history of law and his thesis that the Crucifixion signals a transformation from the rule of the persecutor to the law of the victim, as represented by the modern judicial system. Indeed, one could argue that the great strength of Girard's work is in its demonstration that the defence of the victim occurs through the auspices of Christianity. Other cultures and faiths have followed Christianity on this point so that the proportions reached of the defence of the victim are now global.