ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the state of perpetrator research in the social sciences and history by examining definitions and typologies of perpetrators and the process of perpetration. It approaches perpetration from three distinct analytical perspectives: top level (architects), mid-level (organizers), and bottom level (killers) and develops a temporal processual model focusing on the power relationships between groups of people, especially between perpetrators and victims, but also within the perpetrator group—between high-ranking architects and low-ranking killers. In approaching these issues, it also delves into key debates within the field. Firstly, what types of people become perpetrators? This debate is driven by a paradigmatic tension between the ordinariness of perpetrators, on the one hand, and the pathology of perpetrators. Secondly, how do people become perpetrators? There is a tension between approaches that emphasize the power of the situation and those that emphasize the pathology or choices of perpetrators. Thirdly, why do people kill? Is perpetration driven by hate, ideology, economic interest, or other factors? While prior approaches emphasize roles in genocide (victim, perpetrator, bystander, and rescuer) new perspectives emphasize the malleability and contingency of these positions. This has important implications for the ways in which we define perpetrators and approach perpetrator research.
