University of Wisconsin Press, 2021 Cloth: 978-0-299-32970-9 | eISBN: 978-0-299-32973-0 Library of Congress Classification HV6322.7.R465 2020 Dewey Decimal Classification 304.6630721
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Researchers often face significant and unique ethical and methodological challenges when conducting qualitative field work among people who have been identified as perpetrators of genocide. This can include overcoming biases that often accompany research on perpetrators; conceptualizing, identifying, and recruiting research subjects; risk mitigation and negotiating access in difficult contexts; self-care in conducting interviews relating to extreme violence; and minimizing harm for interviewees who may themselves be traumatized.
This collection of case studies by scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds turns a critical and reflective eye toward qualitative fieldwork on the topic. Framed by an introduction that sets out key issues in perpetrator research and a conclusion that proposes and outlines a code of best practice, the volume provides an essential starting point for future research while advancing genocide studies, transitional justice, and related fields. This original, important, and welcome contribution will be of value to historians, political scientists, criminologists, anthropologists, lawyers, and legal scholars.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Kjell Anderson is the author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account and the director of the Master of Human Rights program at the University of Manitoba. Erin Jessee is the author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: The Politics of History and a senior lecturer in history at the University of Glasgow.
REVIEWS
“For those interested in understanding genocidal violence from the perpetrator’s perspective, this volume brings you insights from scholars with firsthand experience interviewing killers. And for researchers sensitive to the ethical and methodological challenges of working with perpetrators, you will value its practical guidance.”—Omar McDoom, London School of Economics
“Offers a series of timely and incisive reflections on the ethical and methodological challenges that confront researchers in the fields of genocide and perpetrator studies. Not only does it shed critical light on the vexed issue of categorization, but it also offers valuable perspectives on how to approach our own preconceptions and positionality within the field.”—Susanne C. Knittel, editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies
"Introduces scholarly readers across disciplinary fields to the challenges and rewards of research concerning perpetrators of atrocity crimes. This book captures the current 'moment' of perpetrator studies, where the complexity of the perpetrator is no longer strictly a taboo subject. . . . The interdisciplinary appeal of this collection is one of its strongest points, carrying a huge potential for continued conversations within a subfield (genocide studies) predominantly occupied by historians. . . . Anderson and Jessee have started an important conversation in terms of practice and ethics that must be continued."—H-Africa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction | Kjell Anderson and Erin Jessee
The Perpetrator Imaginary: Representing Perpetrators of Genocide | Kjell Anderson
Victims Everywhere, Perpetrators Nowhere: Locating and Talking to Perpetrators in Cambodia | Timothy Williams
Seeing Monsters, Hearing Victims: The Politics of Perpetration in Postgenocide Rwanda | Erin Jessee
Perpetrators among Ourselves | Ivana Macek
Getting Close with Perpetrators in Argentina | Eva van Roekel
Assad’s Paramilitaries: Shabbiha Perpetrators in the Syrian Civil War | Ugur Ümit Üngör
From Murders to Victims: Dilemmas of Doing Perpetrator Research in an Illiberal State | Andrea Peto
From a Perpetrators to a Respondents Approach: A New Way to Consider the Words of the Accused before International Criminal Courts | Marie-Sophie Devresse and Damien Scalia
Conclusion: Toward a Code of Practice for Qualitative Research among Perpetrators | Erin Jessee and Kjell Anderson
Contributors
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Wisconsin Press, 2021 Cloth: 978-0-299-32970-9 eISBN: 978-0-299-32973-0
Researchers often face significant and unique ethical and methodological challenges when conducting qualitative field work among people who have been identified as perpetrators of genocide. This can include overcoming biases that often accompany research on perpetrators; conceptualizing, identifying, and recruiting research subjects; risk mitigation and negotiating access in difficult contexts; self-care in conducting interviews relating to extreme violence; and minimizing harm for interviewees who may themselves be traumatized.
This collection of case studies by scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds turns a critical and reflective eye toward qualitative fieldwork on the topic. Framed by an introduction that sets out key issues in perpetrator research and a conclusion that proposes and outlines a code of best practice, the volume provides an essential starting point for future research while advancing genocide studies, transitional justice, and related fields. This original, important, and welcome contribution will be of value to historians, political scientists, criminologists, anthropologists, lawyers, and legal scholars.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Kjell Anderson is the author of Perpetrating Genocide: A Criminological Account and the director of the Master of Human Rights program at the University of Manitoba. Erin Jessee is the author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda: The Politics of History and a senior lecturer in history at the University of Glasgow.
REVIEWS
“For those interested in understanding genocidal violence from the perpetrator’s perspective, this volume brings you insights from scholars with firsthand experience interviewing killers. And for researchers sensitive to the ethical and methodological challenges of working with perpetrators, you will value its practical guidance.”—Omar McDoom, London School of Economics
“Offers a series of timely and incisive reflections on the ethical and methodological challenges that confront researchers in the fields of genocide and perpetrator studies. Not only does it shed critical light on the vexed issue of categorization, but it also offers valuable perspectives on how to approach our own preconceptions and positionality within the field.”—Susanne C. Knittel, editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies
"Introduces scholarly readers across disciplinary fields to the challenges and rewards of research concerning perpetrators of atrocity crimes. This book captures the current 'moment' of perpetrator studies, where the complexity of the perpetrator is no longer strictly a taboo subject. . . . The interdisciplinary appeal of this collection is one of its strongest points, carrying a huge potential for continued conversations within a subfield (genocide studies) predominantly occupied by historians. . . . Anderson and Jessee have started an important conversation in terms of practice and ethics that must be continued."—H-Africa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction | Kjell Anderson and Erin Jessee
The Perpetrator Imaginary: Representing Perpetrators of Genocide | Kjell Anderson
Victims Everywhere, Perpetrators Nowhere: Locating and Talking to Perpetrators in Cambodia | Timothy Williams
Seeing Monsters, Hearing Victims: The Politics of Perpetration in Postgenocide Rwanda | Erin Jessee
Perpetrators among Ourselves | Ivana Macek
Getting Close with Perpetrators in Argentina | Eva van Roekel
Assad’s Paramilitaries: Shabbiha Perpetrators in the Syrian Civil War | Ugur Ümit Üngör
From Murders to Victims: Dilemmas of Doing Perpetrator Research in an Illiberal State | Andrea Peto
From a Perpetrators to a Respondents Approach: A New Way to Consider the Words of the Accused before International Criminal Courts | Marie-Sophie Devresse and Damien Scalia
Conclusion: Toward a Code of Practice for Qualitative Research among Perpetrators | Erin Jessee and Kjell Anderson
Contributors
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE