ABSTRACT
The largest group of perpetrators are probably the Followers. They are the perpetrators who do not have a specific motive: they just go with the flow. They are very ordinary and average people. They go along because they are put under pressure by their peers or by people in an authority position, or very simply because they do not want to stand out, they do not want to go against the others or because they fear being ridiculed. They conform and obey. This chapter focuses on the role of obedience, conformism and group behaviour and answers the question of why people obey and conform and what the consequences are. It discusses the lessons we can draw from the Milgram experiment and the Nazi bureaucracy of death will be used as a case study. Special attention is given to Reserve Police Battalion 101 as studied by Christopher Browning; the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and those responsible for it: Charlie Company and its commander William Calley. Adolfo Scilingo and the so-called Dirty War in Argentina are discussed as well as the Rwandan genocide in which so many ordinary civilians were involved. The stories of three women who joined the Islamic State are also presented.
