Softening the Blow? The Role of Criminal Trials in the Intergenerational Transmission of Psychosocial Legacies of Mass Atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

• In Event: Past Meets Present: Navigating the Relevance of History in Today’s Context

Abstract

Mass atrocities have a long-lasting impact on individuals, families, and communities. Previous research has shown that the psychosocial legacies of mass atrocities not only affect the generation that lived through the violence but the post-conflict generations as well. In order to address the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its aftermath, criminal trials were utilized to hold individuals accountable. In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it remains unclear what the psychosocial legacies of mass atrocities are and how the criminal trials possibly moderated the transmission of the psychosocial legacies from the war-struck generation to the post-war generation. This project aims to investigate the intergenerational transmission of the psychosocial legacies of the war in Bosnia and the role that criminal trials play in the transmission of these legacies. The focus of this research will be on the domestic trials as well as those of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The study will be based on a literature review, population-based survey, and interviews with families in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this presentation, I will outline the project as well as some of the theoretical, methodological and ethical considerations.

Author

• Amra Žerić, NSCR