Genocidal Bifurcations: The Innocent Sources of Criminal Choices

The present paper aims to investigate the causes of genocidal mobilization associated with the involvement of ordinary people. I discuss the “innocent causes” of criminal choices made by perpetrators who are not leaders, sadists or radicals. To this end, I compared three total genocides, of Armenians, Jews, Romani, Tutsi and Twa, and selected partial genocides. My analysis proves that entire nations or ethnic groups may be exterminated because many people make criminal choices which are motivated by values and norms that in other circumstances would be considered acceptable or even commendable. These choices are made partly due to the structural pressure of circumstances (an ongoing war, a change in the rules of the game [les champs], a new distribution of capital) and are partly derived from dispositions shaped in the course of primary and secondary socialization. Yet, they always require the reflexive mediation of “objective” social forces.