Structural and psychological perspectives on the perpetrator of genocide

Abstract: The present article is an attempt to briefly examine the general motivational matrix of the perpetrator of genocide and genocide-like historical episodes, with a special emphasis on two of the main explanatory directions, i.e. the psychological (both biological and social approaches) and structural-institutional ones. The study is preponderantly an individual-based inquiry, though such references as that to G. Le Bon's La Psychologie des Foules sketch the framework for social psychological perspectives on the genocidal killer. Though extensively concerned with psychological interpretations on the perpetrator of "mass political murder" (Chirot and McCauley, 2006) -which indeed abound in the literature consecrated to the topic and represent a perennial, although often repetitive, direction (Waller, 2001; Kelman and Hamilton, 1989; Blass, 1999; Milgram, 1974; Newman and Erber, 2002, etc)-, the paper favors the structural explanations, dominated by the sociological observations on the

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet (peer reviewed) ; In: Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review ; 12 (2012) 2 ; 235-258

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Geschichte Europas

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2012
• Creator: Marin, Roxana

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-445686
• Rights: Open Access; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:23 AM CEST