Alette Smeulers
Biographic Data
| ID | 6108244 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alette Smeulers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alette |
| FAMILY NAME | Smeulers |
| SIGNATURE | SMEULERS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Groningen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5394-7167 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A Playstation Mentality to Killing? Adverse Psychological Consequences in Drone Pilots and the Stigmatization thereof in the Military
Since the start of the 21st century, drones are increasingly used for military purposes. There have been concerns that the work of drone pilots resembles a video game and it has been argued that drone pilots are less likely to develop mental health problems than other service members. Such an assumption could increase stigmatization but empirical research is lacking. For this explorative study, 11 respondents were interviewed. They were purposefu…
Perpetrators
Ilse Koch on Trial
Journal Article Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the "Bitch of Buchenwald,". Tomaz Jardim Get access Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the "Bitch of Buchenwald," Tomaz Jardim (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023), pp. 368, hardcover $35.00, electronic version available. Alette Smeulers Alette Smeulers University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Schola…
Milgram Revisited
Milgram’s obedience to authority experiments were conducted more than 50 years ago and can undoubtfully be considered one of the most important but also most controversial studies ever conducted. In the last few years (2011-2015), a book on Milgram was published, a film made and 4 international peer-reviewed journals dedicated a special issue to Milgram’s experiments. All this triggered by the opening of the Yale archives which gave access to Mil…
Perpetrators of International Crimes
Scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds have studied why perpetrators of international crimes commit these horrendous acts. Initially, historians and psychologists focused on this debate, which was heavily centred on the Second World War. Over the years, scholars with more diverse disciplinary backgrounds, studying a wide array of cases, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, began to investigate perpetrators of intern…
Why Serious International Crimes Might Not Seem ‘Manifestly Unlawful’ to Low-level Perpetrators
Article 33 of the International Criminal Court Statute allows low-ranking perpetrators to — in exceptional cases — rely on the defence of superior orders. Article 33(2), however, restricts the possibility to rely on this defence to perpetrators of war crimes and denies perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide a similar defence, since according to Article 33(2), such orders are considered always to be manifestly unlawful. This contribu…
The Elgar Companion to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Female Perpetrators
Only a very small percentage of the perpetrators convicted by international criminal courts and tribunals are women. This raises the question as to whether women are less evil than men. Within the literature it is generally assumed that the genocide in Rwanda was unprecedented in relation to the role played by women, and that it is the first and only period of mass violence in which many women were involved. This explorative study however, shows …
The Selection of Situations by the ICC
The main aim of the International Criminal Court ( icc ) is to prosecute the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. One of the most valued features of the icc is the independent position of the Prosecutor in selecting situations and cases to investigate. The Prosecutor, however, has been heavily criticized for his selection policy and countries from the African Union even threatened to withdraw from the icc because of its …
Sixty-Five Years of International Criminal Justice
The international criminal justice system comprises nine international criminal courts and tribunals; six are still operational and three have closed down. On average, they operated for almost nine years apiece and concluded 172 cases in which over 250 judges and 23 chief prosecutors were involved. All in all 745 suspects were indicted, 356 were actually tried and, of these, some 281 defendants were convicted. Currently 34 suspects are on trial a…
Punishment for Genocide – Exploratory Analysis of ICTR Sentencing
The sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is a relatively neglected topic in academic discussions. The few empirical studies on sentencing of international crimes have focused primarily on the sentencing practice of its 'sister court', the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Unlike ICTY defendants, almost all ICTR defendants have been convicted of and sentenced for genocide – ar…
International Sentencing Facts and Figures
This comparative, empirical study analyses the sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). It would appear that there are large differences in ICTY and ICTR sentencing practice. This apparent divergence is examined in greater detail by describing the sentencing behaviour of the courts in relation to different categories of crime, types of of…
Studying the Microdynamics of the Rwandan Genocide
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 stands out for the enormous number of people killed in a relatively short period of time; the mass involvement of the civilian population and the extreme and violent nature of the killings: victims were hunted down, beaten, raped and mutilated before being killed by machetes. This article describes how, within a politically explosive situation, many otherwise non-violent and law-abiding citizens became involved in g…
Is Icty Sentencing Predictable? An Empirical Analysis of Icty Sentencing Practice
This quantitative study analyses the sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The sentencing process is only loosely regulated by the ICTY Statute, and consequently it is not clear how judges exercise their broad discretionary sentencing powers in practice. By analysing the existing case law, legal factors influencing the sentencing decisions are examined. The extent to which the selected factor…
Punishing the Enemies of All Mankind
How do we and how should we punish perpetrators of international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide? Is it fair to hold individuals responsible for their role in manifestations of this type of collective violence? Do the punishments issued by international criminal institutions support the usual penological rationales? Do they actually attain their goals? Is the Westernized international criminal justice system the m…
Studying the Microdynamics of the Rwandan Genocide
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 stands out for the enormous number of people killed in a relatively short period of time; the mass involvement of the civilian population and the extreme and violent nature of the killings: victims were hunted down, beaten, raped and mutilated before being killed by machetes. This article describes how, within a politically explosive situation, many otherwise non-violent and law-abiding citizens became involved in g…
The Selection of Situations by the ICC
The main aim of the International Criminal Court ( icc ) is to prosecute the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. One of the most valued features of the icc is the independent position of the Prosecutor in selecting situations and cases to investigate. The Prosecutor, however, has been heavily criticized for his selection policy and countries from the African Union even threatened to withdraw from the icc because of its …
Female Perpetrators
Only a very small percentage of the perpetrators convicted by international criminal courts and tribunals are women. This raises the question as to whether women are less evil than men. Within the literature it is generally assumed that the genocide in Rwanda was unprecedented in relation to the role played by women, and that it is the first and only period of mass violence in which many women were involved. This explorative study however, shows …
Is Icty Sentencing Predictable? An Empirical Analysis of Icty Sentencing Practice
This quantitative study analyses the sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The sentencing process is only loosely regulated by the ICTY Statute, and consequently it is not clear how judges exercise their broad discretionary sentencing powers in practice. By analysing the existing case law, legal factors influencing the sentencing decisions are examined. The extent to which the selected factor…
International Sentencing Facts and Figures
This comparative, empirical study analyses the sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). It would appear that there are large differences in ICTY and ICTR sentencing practice. This apparent divergence is examined in greater detail by describing the sentencing behaviour of the courts in relation to different categories of crime, types of of…
Sixty-Five Years of International Criminal Justice
The international criminal justice system comprises nine international criminal courts and tribunals; six are still operational and three have closed down. On average, they operated for almost nine years apiece and concluded 172 cases in which over 250 judges and 23 chief prosecutors were involved. All in all 745 suspects were indicted, 356 were actually tried and, of these, some 281 defendants were convicted. Currently 34 suspects are on trial a…
Why Serious International Crimes Might Not Seem ‘Manifestly Unlawful’ to Low-level Perpetrators
Article 33 of the International Criminal Court Statute allows low-ranking perpetrators to — in exceptional cases — rely on the defence of superior orders. Article 33(2), however, restricts the possibility to rely on this defence to perpetrators of war crimes and denies perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide a similar defence, since according to Article 33(2), such orders are considered always to be manifestly unlawful. This contribu…
Punishing the Enemies of All Mankind
How do we and how should we punish perpetrators of international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide? Is it fair to hold individuals responsible for their role in manifestations of this type of collective violence? Do the punishments issued by international criminal institutions support the usual penological rationales? Do they actually attain their goals? Is the Westernized international criminal justice system the m…
Punishing the Enemies of All Mankind
How do we and how should we punish perpetrators of international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide? Is it fair to hold individuals responsible for their role in manifestations of this type of collective violence? Do the punishments issued by international criminal institutions support the usual penological rationales? Do they actually attain their goals? Is the Westernized international criminal justice system the m…
Is Icty Sentencing Predictable? An Empirical Analysis of Icty Sentencing Practice
This quantitative study analyses the sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The sentencing process is only loosely regulated by the ICTY Statute, and consequently it is not clear how judges exercise their broad discretionary sentencing powers in practice. By analysing the existing case law, legal factors influencing the sentencing decisions are examined. The extent to which the selected factor…
Studying the Microdynamics of the Rwandan Genocide
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 stands out for the enormous number of people killed in a relatively short period of time; the mass involvement of the civilian population and the extreme and violent nature of the killings: victims were hunted down, beaten, raped and mutilated before being killed by machetes. This article describes how, within a politically explosive situation, many otherwise non-violent and law-abiding citizens became involved in g…
Punishment for Genocide – Exploratory Analysis of ICTR Sentencing
The sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is a relatively neglected topic in academic discussions. The few empirical studies on sentencing of international crimes have focused primarily on the sentencing practice of its 'sister court', the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Unlike ICTY defendants, almost all ICTR defendants have been convicted of and sentenced for genocide – ar…
International Sentencing Facts and Figures
This comparative, empirical study analyses the sentencing practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). It would appear that there are large differences in ICTY and ICTR sentencing practice. This apparent divergence is examined in greater detail by describing the sentencing behaviour of the courts in relation to different categories of crime, types of of…
Sixty-Five Years of International Criminal Justice
The international criminal justice system comprises nine international criminal courts and tribunals; six are still operational and three have closed down. On average, they operated for almost nine years apiece and concluded 172 cases in which over 250 judges and 23 chief prosecutors were involved. All in all 745 suspects were indicted, 356 were actually tried and, of these, some 281 defendants were convicted. Currently 34 suspects are on trial a…
Female Perpetrators
Only a very small percentage of the perpetrators convicted by international criminal courts and tribunals are women. This raises the question as to whether women are less evil than men. Within the literature it is generally assumed that the genocide in Rwanda was unprecedented in relation to the role played by women, and that it is the first and only period of mass violence in which many women were involved. This explorative study however, shows …
The Selection of Situations by the ICC
The main aim of the International Criminal Court ( icc ) is to prosecute the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. One of the most valued features of the icc is the independent position of the Prosecutor in selecting situations and cases to investigate. The Prosecutor, however, has been heavily criticized for his selection policy and countries from the African Union even threatened to withdraw from the icc because of its …
The Elgar Companion to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Perpetrators of International Crimes
Scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds have studied why perpetrators of international crimes commit these horrendous acts. Initially, historians and psychologists focused on this debate, which was heavily centred on the Second World War. Over the years, scholars with more diverse disciplinary backgrounds, studying a wide array of cases, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, began to investigate perpetrators of intern…
Why Serious International Crimes Might Not Seem ‘Manifestly Unlawful’ to Low-level Perpetrators
Article 33 of the International Criminal Court Statute allows low-ranking perpetrators to — in exceptional cases — rely on the defence of superior orders. Article 33(2), however, restricts the possibility to rely on this defence to perpetrators of war crimes and denies perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide a similar defence, since according to Article 33(2), such orders are considered always to be manifestly unlawful. This contribu…
Milgram Revisited
Milgram’s obedience to authority experiments were conducted more than 50 years ago and can undoubtfully be considered one of the most important but also most controversial studies ever conducted. In the last few years (2011-2015), a book on Milgram was published, a film made and 4 international peer-reviewed journals dedicated a special issue to Milgram’s experiments. All this triggered by the opening of the Yale archives which gave access to Mil…
Perpetrators
Ilse Koch on Trial
Journal Article Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the "Bitch of Buchenwald,". Tomaz Jardim Get access Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the "Bitch of Buchenwald," Tomaz Jardim (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2023), pp. 368, hardcover $35.00, electronic version available. Alette Smeulers Alette Smeulers University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Schola…
A Playstation Mentality to Killing? Adverse Psychological Consequences in Drone Pilots and the Stigmatization thereof in the Military
Since the start of the 21st century, drones are increasingly used for military purposes. There have been concerns that the work of drone pilots resembles a video game and it has been argued that drone pilots are less likely to develop mental health problems than other service members. Such an assumption could increase stigmatization but empirical research is lacking. For this explorative study, 11 respondents were interviewed. They were purposefu…
Political science (13 works) · Criminology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (9 works) · International Law and Human Rights (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (6 works) · Genocide (5 works) · Torture, Ethics, and Law (5 works)