The Oxford Handbook on Atrocity Crimes

Edited by Barbora Holá, Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, and Maartje Weerdesteijn.

Social scientific research focusing on mass atrocities, which include widespread or systematic crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, expanded after the end of the Cold War. Mass violence in the former Yugoslavia, as well as the genocide in Rwanda, sparked new research initiatives in numerous disciplines. Scholars working in various academic fields such as international (criminal) law, political science, psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, and demography began to focus on the causes and consequences of atrocity crimes. Yet knowledge generated by these various disciplines remains scattered and has not been integrated into a single edited volume.

The Oxford Handbook on Atrocity Crimes surveys and further develops the evolving field of atrocity crimes studies by combining major mono-, inter-, and multi-disciplinary research on atrocity crimes in one comprehensive volume. With contributions of leading scholars, this handbook will be an essential source and reference tool. Unique in its thematic focus (atrocity crimes as an overarching phenomenon, including crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes) as well as in its comprehensive scope, the book covers the etiology, the actors involved, the harm caused, the reactions to atrocity crimes, and in-depth analyses of understudied situations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Barbora Holá works as Senior Researcher at the NSCR and as Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has an interdisciplinary focus and studies transitional justice after atrocities, in particular (international) criminal trials, sentencing of international crimes, enforcement of international sentences, rehabilitation of war criminals and life after trial at international criminal tribunals.

Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira is an Associate Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University. Her research addresses the causes of genocide and mass violence, as well as how countries rebuild in the aftermath. Her two current projects funded by the U.S. National Science foundation examine Rwanda’s gacaca courts and peoples’ reentry and reintegration following incarceration for genocide in Rwanda.

Maartje Weerdesteijn works as Assistant Professor at the Department of Criminal law and Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who focusses on the role of the dictator in orchestrating mass atrocities and the responsibility of the international community to mitigate these crimes.

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