Why We Kill
The Political Science of Political Violence against Civilians
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6232964 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Benjamin A Valentino (0000-0002-9393-9687, Dartmouth College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 89-103 |
| Publication date | 2014-05-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annual Review of Political Science (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1094-2939 • E-ISSN: 1545-1577 |
| Publisher | Annual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1146/annurev-polisci-082112-141937 |
| OpenAlex | W2108078693 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 94 |
| References cited | 58 |
This article reviews the political science literature on political violence against civilians, including genocide, mass killing, and terrorism. Early work on these subjects tended to portray this kind of violence as irrational, random, or the result of ancient hatreds between ethnic groups. Most scholars studying political violence today, however, understand it to be primarily, if not exclusively, instrumental and orchestrated by powerful actors seeking to achieve tangible political or military objectives. Scholars continue to disagree, however, about the specific motives that drive belligerents to target civilians or the conditions under which large-scale violence against civilians is most likely
Criminology · Ethnic group · Genocide · Irrational number · Political economy · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Sociology · Terrorism · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Religion and Society Interactions · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Analysis of Conflict Diffusion Over Continuous Space
Language, Discourse, and Hegemony
Patterns of Indirect Violence in Conventional War
Problems with Oversimplified Categories in the Study of Collective Violence
The Context, Logic, and Perpetuation of Violence
The Social Violence and Regime Changes in Indonesia
Technology and the transformation of political violence
Pacifist or Peace Psychology? Overcoming Naïve Pacifism to Foster a True Science of Peace‐Making
Revolutionary Ideology and Conflict Intensity
Ideology and Mass Killing
Mobilization and Conflict in Multiethnic States
Securitization Revisited
Catastrophes, Confrontations, and Constraints
The Security Arena in Africa
Civilian Harm, Wartime Informing, and Counterinsurgent Operations
The Effect of Category Spanning on the Lethality and Longevity of Terrorist Organizations
Crise post-électorale en Côte d’Ivoire et logique de la non-violence en milieu urbain
Thriving on chaos
The humanisation of security? Towards an International Human Protection Regime
Rage and the Machines? Force Mechanization and Violence against Civilians
Coups and the End of Mass-Killing Episodes
Moving Beyond the State
Holding Back the Tide
The ICC and the Prevention of Atrocities
The Spectacle of Violence in Duterte's “War on Drugs”
Pro-government international military intervention during genocide and politicide
The Long-Term Effects of State Repression on Political Behavior and Attitudes
Postmemory sits in places
Deviant Cohesion and Unauthorized Atrocities
Explaining support for international action against human rights abusers
Pathways to Violence in Civil Wars
The politics of descriptive inference
Cultural Production, Music and the Politics of Legitimacy
State failure, genocide and politicide reconsidered
The ‘Politics of Protection’
Violent orders and coup-proofing
Who are the civilians in the wars of South Sudan
Reframing conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence
Lethal aid and human security
Rebel Behavior in the Context of Interstate Competition
Climate Harshness, Opportunity, and Environmental Violence
Women Suicide Terrorism
A theory of targeted and indiscriminate state violence in networks
Peace Negotiations and Civilian Targeting
Provoking Ordinary People
Quantifying the Disaggregated Impact of Atrocities on Socioeconomic Activity
The Ontology of Cruelty in Civil War
Beyond Collateral Damage
The Catch-22 of Conflict and Women’s Candidacies
Mass political murder
Partners in Crime
The Impact of Ideological Ambiguity on Terrorist Organizations
Due Process and Accountability Under Transitional Justice
Strategies and Tactics in Armed Conflict
Excessive Force or Armored Restraint? Government Mechanization and Civilian Casualties in Civil Conflict
Civilian Victimization and Ethnic Civil War
Dynamics and Logics of Civil War
Targeting and Public Opinion
Does Insurgent Selective Punishment Deter Collaboration? Evidence from the Drone War in Pakistan
Why Protectors Become Predators? Violence against Civilians by Amisom Peacekeepers in Somalia
Information, Secrecy, and Civilian Targeting
Excluded Ethnic Groups, Conflict Contagion, and the Onset of Genocide and Politicide during Civil War
Cleansing the Caliphate
Public Tolerance of Retributive Violence against Insurgencies
Punching before the Bell Rings
Civilians, Control, and Collaboration during Civil Conflict
Penalizing Atrocities
Civilized Barbarism
An Informational Theory of Genocide and Politicide During Civil War
Violence Against Civilians During Armed Conflict
Network Competition and Civilian Targeting during Civil Conflict
Quick. But Impactful? United Nations Quick Impact Projects and Violence against Civilians in Civil War
Committed sponsors
Explaining the pattern of “war on drugs” violence in the Philippines under Duterte
Civil wars and armed groups under Covid-19
Why insurgents kill civilians in capital cities
The consequences of internal displacement on civil war violence
From snapshots to panoramas
How do external territorial threats affect mass killing
Predicting the decline of ethnic civil war
Civilian targeting in African conflicts
Quotidian crime, wartime violence and public goods preferences
Varieties of civil war and mass killing
What drives violence against civilians in civil war? Evidence from Guatemala's conflict archives
Windows of repression
Controlling a moving world
The moral foundations of restraint
Combatant socialization and norms of restraint
Beyond genocide
The Logic of Kidnapping in Civil War
Chronicle of a Survival Foretold
Los nadies y las nadies
Violence against Women in Politics
Rural Radicalism in the Capital City
Revolution and genocide
Bombing to win
The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict
The Killing Trap
Does Terrorism Work?
Fantasmas balcánicos
From Voting to Violence
Why America? The Globalization of Civil War
The Clash of Civilizations
Theft of an Idol
The Logic of Violence in Civil War
Draining the Sea by Filling the Graves
Attacks on Civilians in Civil War
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
The Strategies of Terrorism
Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict
How the Weak Win Wars
Why Terrorism Does Not Work
Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas
What Terrorists Really Want
The security dilemma and ethnic conflict
Balkan ghosts
International Terrorism and World Security
Origins of Terrorism
Accounting for genocide after 1945
The Banality of “Ethnic War
The Order of Genocide
Retreat from Doomsday
Covenants Without the Sword International Law and the Protection of Civilians in Times of War
Weakening the Enemy
Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks
Rivalry and Revenge
Draining the Sea
Who Takes the Blame? The Strategic Effects of Collateral Damage
Final solutions
Wanton and Senseless
Portrait of a Failed Rebellion
Battle Losses and Rebel Violence
The Dynamics of Violence in Vietnam
Rebel capability and strategic violence against civilians
Managing Transition Anarchies
Disciplining an Unruly Field
The Full Weight of the State
Armed intervention and civilian victimization in intrastate conflicts
Violence Against Civilians in Civil Wars
Explaining Interethnic Cooperation
No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955
Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War
Civil Wars Kill and Maim People-Long After the Shooting Stops
A Theory of Categorical Terrorism
What We Talk About When We Talk About Terrorism
Armed Groups and Sexual Violence
Ethnic and Nationalist Violence
Terror and Guerrilla Warfare in Latin America, 1956-1970
| Unique citing works | 94 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 8,55 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 93 |