How very massive atrocities end

A dataset and typology

Bibliographic Data

ID3916355
AuthorsBridget Conley (Tufts University), Chad Hazlett (0000-0003-1819-1928, Department of Political Science, UCLA)
Year2021
Volume58
Issue3
Pages612-620
Publication date2021-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343319900912
OpenAlexW3038637062
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

Understanding how the most severe mass atrocities have historically come to an end may aid in designing policy interventions to more rapidly terminate future episodes. To facilitate research in this area, we construct a new dataset covering all 43 very large mass atrocities perpetrated by governments or non-state actors since 1945 with at least 50,000 civilian fatalities. This article introduces and summarizes these data, including an inductively generated typology of three major ending types: those in which (i) violence is carried out to its intended conclusion (37%); (ii) the perpetrator is driven out of power militarily (26%); or (iii) the perpetrator shifts to a different strategy no longer involving mass atrocities against civilians (37%). We find that international actors play a range of important roles in endings, often involving encouragement and support for policy changes that reduce mass killings. Endings could be attributed principally to armed foreign interventions in only four cases, three of which involved regime change. Within the cases we study, no ending was attributable to a neutral peacekeeping mission

Computer security · Construct (python library) · Criminology · Medical emergency · Peacekeeping · Poison control · Political economy · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Sociology · State (computer science) · Suicide prevention · Typology · Variety (cybernetics) · Computer Science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Law · Medicine · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology

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