Citation

Anderton CH, Brauer J. J. Genocide Res. 2019; 21(4): 481-503.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14623528.2019.1632562

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Mass atrocity case studies routinely refer to networks of perpetrators (and of victims and bystanders) but little formal work is available to pinpoint characteristics of atrocity committing networks and how they operate. For example, how do atrocity ideas spread throughout a population, and how may such diffusion be thwarted? How does one explain the scaling up from few perpetrators to mass participation by thousands of perpetrators? Why do some communities in a given society appear nearly immune to participation whereas others participate en masse? We introduce three formal illustrative models to derive insights into these questions and other issues related to the onset, spread, and possible prevention of mass atrocities. The models demonstrate that formal networking theory can provide compelling insights into a number of puzzles that the genocide literature grapples with.

Language: en

Keywords

Genocide; mass atrocity; network models; prevention; social networks