The Complexity of Evil: Perpetration and Genocide

Timothy Williams

Open Access Published by Rutgers University Press 2021

The Complexity of Evil

Perpetration and Genocide

Timothy Williams

In the series Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights

https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978814332

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why do people participate in genocide? The Complexity of Evil responds to this fundamental question by drawing on political science, sociology, criminology, anthropology, social psychology, and history to develop a model which can explain perpetration across various different cases. Focusing in particular on the Holocaust, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, The Complexity of Evil model draws on, systematically sorts, and causally orders a wealth of scholarly literature and supplements it with original field research data from interviews with former members of the Khmer Rouge. The model is systematic and abstract, as well as empirically grounded, providing a tool for understanding the micro-foundations of various cases of genocide. Ultimately this model highlights that the motivations for perpetrating genocide are both complex in their diversity and banal in their ordinariness and mundanity.

Download the open access ebook here.

Author / Editor information

TIMOTHY WILLIAMS is a junior professor of insecurity and social order at the Bundeswehr University Munich in Munich, Germany. His work has won awards from the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the German Peace Psychologist Association, and Marburg University. He is the coeditor, with Susanne Buckley-Zistel, of Perpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence: Action, Motivations and Dynamics.

Reviews

"The Complexity of Evil is a thorough and systematic exploration of genocide perpetration that that marries conceptual precision with a nuanced exploration of the Cambodian Genocide and other case studies. In perhaps his greatest contribution, Williams avoids reproducing conventional wisdom by thoughtfully exploring the complexities of perpetrator motivations in each context."

— Kjell Anderson, author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account

"This timely book—grounded in extensive qualitative fieldwork in Cambodia and comparison with the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwandan genocide—offers rich insights for the fields of perpetrator studies and genocide studies. Williams’s complexity of evil model helps us better understand the personal circumstances through which people become perpetrators, while acknowledging the potential for them to simultaneously be victims, bystanders, rescuers, and so on."

— Erin Jessee, author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: The Politics of History

“Confronting the most challenging moral and historical questions in our field, The Complexity of Evil is exceptionally insightful and wise. Based upon extensive research and deep thought, this book is also remarkably accessible. Williams never loses sight of the human implications of his study, and has made a pathbreaking contribution.”

— John Cox, author of To Kill a People: Genocide in the Twentieth Century

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
The Complexity of Evil
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
Vignette I Chandara:
Chapter 1 The Complexity of Evil Introducing the Model Open Access Download PDF	37
Vignette II Sokong:
Chapter 2 Motivations Open Access Download PDF	59
Vignette III Sokphary:
Chapter 3 Facilitative Factors Open Access Download PDF	125
Vignette IV Sopheak: An Interrogator Searching to Unearth Enemy Strings
Chapter 4 Contextual Conditions Open Access Download PDF	165
Vignette V Sokha:
Chapter 5 Diversity, Complexity, Scope Discussing the Model and Its Empirical Application Open Access Download PDF	187
Vignette VI Ramy:
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	209
Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	211
Appendix: List of Interviewees Open Access Download PDF	217
Acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	221
Glossary Open Access Download PDF	223
Notes Open Access Download PDF	225
References Open Access Download PDF	233
Index Open Access Download PDF	259

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 260
Illustrations
- Other: 2 b-w images, 1 table
Keywords: Political Violence; Human Rights; Genocide; Political Science; Sociology; Criminology; Anthropology; Social Psychology; History; Holocaust; Cambodia; Diversity; Complexity; Scope; Rwanda; Khmer Rogue; Wars; Politics

eBook

Published: December 18, 2020
ISBN: 9781978814332