Techniques of Neutralization and Identity Work Among Accused Genocide Perpetrators
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2245191 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emily Bryant (Boston University, corresponding author), Emily Brooke Schimke (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee), Hollie Nyseth Brehm (The Ohio State University), Christopher Uggen (0000-0003-3231-5632, University of Minnesota) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 584-602 |
| Publication date | 2018-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Problems (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/socpro/spx026 |
| OpenAlex | W2740201555 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 21 |
| References cited | 57 |
Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, many defendants on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) testified on their own behalf. This article analyzes transcripts of their testimonies to learn (1) how defendants discuss the grave crimes of which they are accused, and (2) how their explanatory styles allow them to rationalize their actions and negotiate their tarnished identities. We find that defendants employ Gresham Sykes and David Matza's (1957) classic techniques of neutralization as a means of rationalization, impression management, and identity negotiation. Nevertheless, these techniques, along with those developed in the decades since, do not capture all aspects of defendants' accounts. We thus identify additional techniques of neutralization to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how defendants account for their actions. By extending this classic literature, we call attention to the situational context of international trials, the nature of the crime of genocide, the relatively high social status many defendants once occupied, and existing narratives surrounding the legitimacy of the ICTR. In doing so, our analysis contributes to understandings of narratives of violence and accused genocide perpetrators
Context (archaeology) · Criminology · Genocide · Identity (music) · Legitimacy · Narrative · Negotiation · Political science · Situational ethics · Sociology · Tribunal · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance
Áldozathibáztatás kisebbségi csoportok sértettjeivel szemben
For HE tells me so
Personality, attitude, and demographic correlates of academic dishonesty
“I Decided to Save Them”
Fossil modernity and climate atrocity
Discourse as a Strategy of Justification
Neutralization Techniques Among Indonesian Student Mass Fighters
Overcoming stigma
Understanding Police Agencies’ Explanations for Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality in Vehicle Stops
Neutralization and Violence in Gaza
Stigma management, group interaction, and cultural trauma
Spatial and Temporal Dilemmas of Managers and Entrepreneurs. The Reconstruction of Neutralization Techniques
They say it’s a crime for us to be here”
Through the Smokescreen of the Dieselgate Disclosure
Genocide, Mass Atrocity, and Theories of Crime
Paternal experiences discussing genocide post-incarceration
This Is Not a Riot”
Making Sense of Violence Through Women’s Experiences
Identities and Interactions
Following Heavenly Orders
That's Just What You Do
The Logic of Evil
The Killing Trap
Leave none to tell the story
The authoritarian personality
Obedience to authority
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Free Spaces, Collective Identity, and the Persistence of U.S. White Power Activism
Techniques of Neutralization
The Death Toll of the Rwandan Genocide
Neutralizing Their Involvement
International Sentencing Facts and Figures
Courting Rwanda
How Can it Happen that Horrendous State Crimes are Perpetrated
When Wounds and Corpses Fail to Speak
Textuality and the Social Organization of Denial
What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research
Types of neutralization and types of delinquency
Rape myths as neutralizing cognitions
The Professional Fence
The Rwandan crisis 1959–1994
The Techniques of Neutralization and Violence
Human Nature and the Social Order
The Order of Genocide
Criminal behavior systems
Modernity and the holocaust
Antisocial Capital
He Would Kill Me With His Penis
Accounts
Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive
Techniques of Neutralization
The Neutralization of Religious Dissonance
Who killed in Rwanda's genocide? Micro-space, social influence and individual participation in intergroup violence
Mind, Self, and Society
The Textual Mediation of Denial
Identity Work and Collective Action in a Repressive Context
Violent Offenders, Moral Selves
Convicted Rapists' Vocabulary of Motive
Becoming a Hit Man
The Use of Gendered Narratives in the Courtroom
Social Scientific Inquiry Into Genocide and Mass Killing
Genocide as Social Control
Institutionalizing Collective Memories of Hate
Identity Work Among the Homeless
Neutralizing in the workplace
Presumed Guilty
Societal Attachments, Offending Frequency, and Techniques of Neutralization
| Unique citing works | 21 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,63 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 18 |