Individuals as Perpetrators of Atrocity Crimes

This chapter addresses individuals as perpetrators of atrocity crimes and focuses on the research conducted in this inter- and multidisciplinary field. It aims to identify the main findings, the current state of the art, the core debates, and the crucial questions. Some of the main findings so far are that most perpetrators are ordinary human beings in extraordinary circumstances, and that many get caught up and obey their superiors and conform to others. This chapter, however, also concludes that perpetrators differ, and that there can be many different reasons for people to become involved in mass atrocities. It ends by stating that human behavior is extremely complex, but that doing research on perpetrators, while not easy, nevertheless needs to be done, as knowledge is the only thing that might help us to—in the future—try to stop perpetrators and prevent atrocity crimes.