Genocidal Perpetrators: Towards a New Typology for An Old Crime

• In Event: International and Transnational Crime and Justice

Abstract

Because of the extreme nature of genocide, scholars have long attempted to make sense of those who carry out such violent, widespread, and systematic policies of persecution and extermination. A few scholars, most notably Michael Mann and Alette Smeulers, have developed perpetrator typologies in attempts to explain the wide variety of individuals and motivations of those who come to engage in such destructive policies and practices. While these typologies are important first steps in shedding light on the actors in mass atrocity crimes like genocide, they still are problematic in a number of ways, most notably in fostering simplistic and one-dimensional conceptualizations of perpetrators. In this article, we argue that the factors that influence a perpetrator are as complex and manifold as humans are. We depart from the one-dimensional world of existing perpetrator typologies that focus solely on personal motivation and seek to broaden these typologies to include the political and institutional structures and organizations within which perpetrators often operate. The goal is to highlight the complex interplay of cultural, political, economic, and institutional structures and pressures that, in conjunction with individual motivations, facilitate participation and complicity in genocide.

Authors

• Alex Alvarez, Northern Arizona University

• Stefanie Kunze, Northern Arizona University