Massacres as process: A micro-sociological theory of internal patterns of mass atrocities

Abstract

Mass atrocities are episodes of violence that do not unfold at random: (a) there are recurrent patterns in the forms that violent behavior takes; (b) the chain of events in which violence unfolds is patterned internally, that is, there are processual patterns. These patterns are not the mere outcome or reflection of larger structures such as ethnic conflict; violence instead has patterns (including processual patterns) with a logic of their own. By tracing the onset and early phases of massacres in Srebrenica and Rwanda, it is shown that patterns of violence are shaped by local emotional dynamics. The paper builds on recent findings in the micro-sociology of violence by Collins and others and on Horowitz’s research on the processual character of violence in riots.