Mass killing

Mass killing is a concept proposed by genocide scholars to define incidents of non-combat killing by government or state. A mass killing, as defined by Ervin Staub, is "killing members of a group without the intention to eliminate the whole group or killing large numbers of people without a precise definition of group membership."[1][2]

This article is about the concept proposed by genocide scholars to define incidents of non-combat killing by government or state. For multiple killings committed by an individual or group, see Mass murder. For other multiple killings by government or state, see Homicide by state actors.
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The term mass killing is used by a number of genocide scholars because the term genocide (its strict definition) does not cover mass killing events when no specific ethnic or religious group is targeted, or when perpetrators are not intended to eliminate the whole group or its significant part. Different models are used by genocide scholars to explain and predict the onset of mass killing events. There has been little consensus or a generally-accepted terminology,[3][4] prompting one scholar to describe comparative attempts a failure.[5]

Terminology

Several different terms are used to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants, but there is no consensus or generally-accepted terminology.[4][6][7] Mass killing has emerged as a "more straightforward" term.[8] Mass killing was proposed by genocide scholars in attempts to collect a uniform global database of genocidal events and identify statistical models for prediction of onset of mass killings. Atsushi Tago and Frank Wayman reference mass killing as defined by Valentino and argue that even with a lower threshold (10,000 killed per year, 1,000 killed per year, or even 1), "autocratic regimes, especially communist, are prone to mass killing generically, but not so strongly inclined (i.e. not statistically significantly inclined) toward geno-politicide."[9] Other terms used by several authors to describe mass killings of non-combattents include:

  • Classicide – "intended mass killing of entire social classes", which sociologist Michael Mann considers more apt for describing mass killings under communism than "genocide"[10]
  • Democide – political scientist Rudolph Rummel defined democide as "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command."[11] According to Rummel, this definition covers a wide range of deaths, including forced labor and concentration camp victims, killings by unofficial private groups, extrajudicial summary killings and mass deaths in deliberate famines as well as killings by de facto governments, e.g. civil war killings.[12] Rummel's democide concept is similar to geno-politicide, but there are two important differences. First, an important prerequisite for geno-politicide is government's intent to destroy a specific group.[13] In contrast, democide deals with wider range of cases, including the cases when governments are engaged in random killing either directly or due to the acts of criminal omission and neglect.[11] Second, whereas some lower threshold exists for a killing event to be considered geno-politicide, there is no low threshold for democide which covers any murder of any number of persons by any government.[11]
  • Genocide – under the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide generally applies to mass murder of ethnic rather than political or social groups. Protection of political groups was eliminated from the United Nations resolution after a second vote because many states anticipated that clause to apply unneeded limitations to their right to suppress internal disturbances.[14][15] Genocide is also a popular term for political killings which are studied academically as democide and politicide.[9]
  • Mass killing – referencing earlier definitions,[16][17] Joan Esteban, Massimo Morelli and Dominic Rohner define mass killings as "the killings of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under the conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims."[18] Valentino defines the term as "the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants", where a "massive number" is at least 50,000 intentional deaths over the course of five years or less. This is the most accepted quantitative minimum threshold for the term.[19][20][21][18][22]
  • Politicide – some genocide scholars propose the concept of politicide to describe the killing of groups that would not otherwise be covered by the Genocide Convention.[23] Barbara Harff studies "genocide and politicide", sometimes shortened as "geno-politicide", to include the mass killing of political, economic, ethnic and cultural groups.[9]

Dispossessive vs. coercive mass killing

Benjamin Valentino, who sees ruler's motives as the key factor explaining the onset of mass killings, outlines two major category of mass killings, namely dispossessive mass killing and coercive mass killing.[24] The first category included ethnic cleansing, killings that accompany agrarian reforms in some Communist states and killings during colonial expansion, among others. The second category includes killing during counter-guerilla warfare and killings as part of the Axis imperialist conquests during the World War II, among others. Although he does not consider ideology or regime type as an important factor that explains mass killings,[25] Valentino outlines Communist mass killing as a subtype of dispossessive mass killing which is considered as a complication of original theory his book is based on.[9] About why it occurs, Valentino writes: "I content mass killing occurs when powerful groups come to believe it is the best available means to accomplish certain radical goals, counter specific types of threats, or solve difficult military problem."[25][26]

In a review of second-generation comparative research on genocide, Scott Straus writes that "Valentino identifies two major types, each with three subtypes. The first major type is 'dispossessive mass killing,' which includes (1) 'communist mass killings' in which leaders seek to transform societies according to communist principles; (2) 'ethnic mass killings,' in which leaders forcibly remove an ethnic population; and (3) mass killing as leaders acquire and repopulate land. The second major type of mass killing is 'coercive mass killing,' which includes (1) killing in wars when leaders cannot defeat opponents using conventional means; (2) 'terrorist' mass killing when leaders use violence to force an opposing side to surrender; and (3) killing during the creation of empires when conquering leaders try to defeat resistance and intimidate future resistance."[25]

Global databases of mass killings

Two global databases of mass killings are currently available. The first compilation by Rudolph Rummel covers a time period from the beginning of the 20th century utill 1977 while the second compilation by Barbara Harff combines all mass killing events since 1955. The Harff database is the most frequently used by genocide scholars.[9]

These data are intended mostly for statistical analysis of mass killings in attempt to identify the best predictors for their onset. According to Harff, these data are not necessarily the most accurate for a given country, since some sources are general genocide scholars and not experts on local history.[11] A comparative analysis of these two databases revealed a significant difference between the figures of killed per years and low correlation between Rummel's and Harff's data sets. Tomislav Dulić criticized Rummel's generally higher numbers[11] as arising from flaws in Rummel's statistical methodology.[27]

Genocides and politicides from 1955 to 2001 as listed by Harff, 2003[13]
CountryStartEndNature of episodeEst. number of victimsRelated articles
SudanOctober 1956March 1972Politicide with communal victims400,000–600,000First Sudanese Civil War
South VietnamJanuary 1965April 1975Politicide400,000–500,000South Vietnam
ChinaMarch 1959December 1959Genocide and politicide65,0001959 Tibetan uprising
IraqJune 1963March 1975Politicide with communal victims30,000–60,000Ba'athist Iraq
AlgeriaJuly 1962December 1962Politicide9,000–30,000
RwandaDecember 1963June 1964Politicide with communal victims12,000–20,000
Congo-KinshasaFebruary 1964January 1965Politicide1,000–10,000
BurundiOctober 1965December 1973Politicide with communal victims140,000
IndonesiaNovember 1965July 1966Genocide and politicide500,000–1,000,000Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66
ChinaMay 1966March 1975Politicide400,000–850,000
GuatemalaJuly 1978December 1996Politicide and genocide60,000–200,000Guatemalan genocide
PakistanMarch 1971December 1971Politicide with communal victims1,000,000–3,000,000
UgandaDecember 1972April 1979Politicide and genocide50,000–400,000Genocides in central Africa
PhilippinesSeptember 1972June 1976Politicide with communal victims60,000
PakistanFebruary 1973July 1977Politicide with communal victims5,000–10,000
ChileSeptember 1973December 1976Politicide5,000–10,000
AngolaNovember 19752001Politicide by UNITA and government forces500,000
CambodiaApril 1975January 1979Politicide and genocide1,900,000–3,500,000Cambodian genocide
IndonesiaDecember 1975July 1992Politicide with communal victims100,000–200,000
ArgentinaMarch 1976December 1980Politicide9,000–20,000
EthiopiaJuly 1976December 1979Politicide10,000
Congo-KinshasaMarch 1977December 1979Politicide with communal victims3,000–4,000
AfghanistanApril 1978April 1992Politicide1,800,000
BurmaJanuary 1978December 1978Genocide5,000
El. SalvadorJanuary 1980December 1989Politicide40,000–60,000
UgandaDecember 1980January 1986Politicide and genocide200,000–500,000Genocides in central Africa
SyriaMarch 1981February 1982Politicide5,000–30,000
IranJune 1981December 1992Politicide and genocide10,000–20,000Casualties of the Iranian Revolution
1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
SudanSeptember 1983?Politicide with communal victims2,000,000
IraqMarch 1988June 1991Politicide with communal victims180,000
SomaliaMay 1988January 1991Politicide with communal victims15,000–50,000
Burundi19881988Genocide5,000–20,000Hutu massacres of 1988
Sri LankaSeptember 1989January 1990Politicide13,000–30,000
BosniaMay 1992November 1995Genocide225,000Bosnian genocide
BurundiOctober 1993May 1994Genocide50,000Burundian genocides
RwandaApril 1994July 1994Genocide500,000–1,000,000Rwandan genocide
SerbiaDecember 1998July 1999Politicide with communal victims10,000

See also

Notes
    1. Staub, Ervin (1989). The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-521-42214-7.
    2. "In contrast to genocide, I see mass killing as 'killing (or in other ways destroying) members of a group without the intention to eliminate the whole group, or killing large numbers of people' without a focus on group membership." Staub, Ervin (2011). Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism. Oxford University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-195-38204-4.
    3. Krain 1997.
    4. Valentino 2004, p. 6: "No generally accepted terminology exists to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants."
    5. Weiss-Wendt 2008.
    6. Weiss-Wendt 2008, p. 42: "There is barely any other field of study that enjoys so little consensus on defining principles such as definition of genocide, typology, application of a comparative method, and timeframe."
    7. Krain 1997, pp. 331–332: "The literatures on state-sponsored mass murder and state terrorism have been plagued by definitional problems."
    8. Ott 2011, p. 53: "As is customary in the literature on mass killing of civilians there is a need to restate here what mass killing is about. Although many definitions have been used — 'genocide', 'politicide' and 'democide' — there has emerged a sort of consensus that the term 'mass killing' is much more straightforward than either genocide or politicide."
    9. Wayman & Tago 2010.
    10. Sémelin 2007, p. 37.
    11. Harff, Barbara (2017). "The Comparative Analysis of Mass Atrocities and Genocide" (PDF). In Gleditish, N. P. (ed.). R.J. Rummel: An Assessment of His Many Contributions. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice. 37. New York: Springer. pp. 111–129. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54463-2_12. ISBN 978-3-319-54463-2.
    12. Harff, Barbara (1996). "Death by Government by R. J. Rummel". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 27 (1): 117–119. doi:10.2307/206491. JSTOR 206491.
    13. Harff, Barbara (February 2003). "No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955". The American Political Science Review. American Political Science Association. 97 (1): 57–73. JSTOR 3118221. The list does not include deaths from the Great Chinese Famine and the Great Leap Forward.
    14. Schaak, Beth (May 1997). "The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot". The Yale Law Journal. 106 (7): 2259‒2291.
    15. Jones (2010) Genocide p. 137.
    16. Charny 2000 defines generic genocide as "the mass killing of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims."
    17. In the 2006 article "Development, Democracy, and Mass Killings", William Easterly, Roberta Gatti and Sergio Kurlat adopted Charny's definition of generic genocide for their use of mass killing and massacre to avoid the politics of genocide altogether. Easterly, William, Roberta Gatti and Sergio Kurlat. (2006). "Development, democracy, and mass killings", Journal of Economic Growth 11: 129-156.
    18. Esteban, Joan Maria; Morelli, Massimo; Rohner, Dominic (May 2010). "Strategic Mass Killings". Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich. Working Paper No. 486. SSRN 1615375.
    19. Wayman & Tago 2010, p. 4.
    20. Wayman & Tago 2010, p. 11.
    21. Wayman & Tago 2010, p. 12.
    22. Valentino 2004, p. 91.
    23. Harff, Barbara; Gurr, Ted Robert (1988). "Toward Empirical Theory of Genocides and Politicides: Identification and Measurement of Cases Since 1945". International Studies Quarterly. 32 (3): 359–371. doi:10.2307/2600447. ISSN 0020-8833. JSTOR 2600447.
    24. Valentino 2004, p. 70.
    25. Straus, Scott (April 2007). "Review: Second-Generation Comparative Research on Genocide". World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 59 (3): 476–501. doi:10.1017/S004388710002089X. JSTOR 40060166. S2CID 144879341.
    26. Valentino 2004, p. 60.
    27. Dulić, Tomislav (January 2004). "Tito's Slaughterhouse: A Critical Analysis of Rummel's Work on Democide". Journal of Peace Research. SAGE Publications. 41 (1): 85‒102. JSTOR 4149657.

    Bibliography
    • Charny, Israel W., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Genocide. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-87436-928-1.
    • Krain, Matthew (June 1997). "State-Sponsored Mass Murder: The Onset and Severity of Genocides and Politicides". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 41 (3): 331–360. doi:10.1177/0022002797041003001. ISSN 0022-0027. JSTOR 174282. S2CID 143852782.
    • Ott, Attiat (2011). "Modeling Mass Killing: For Gain or Ethnic Cleansing?". In Hartley, Keith (ed.). Handbook on the Economics of Conflict. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 52–79. ISBN 978-0-857-93034-7.
    • Sémelin, Jacques (2007). Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide. The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies. Translated by Schoch, Cynthia. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14282-3.
    • Valentino, Benjamin A. (2004). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-3965-0. OCLC 53013098.
    • Wayman, Frank W.; Tago, Atsushi (2010). "Explaining the onset of mass killing, 1949–87". Journal of Peace Research. 47 (1): 3–13. doi:10.1177/0022343309342944. ISSN 0022-3433. JSTOR 25654524. S2CID 145155872.
    • Weiss-Wendt, Anton (2008). "Problems in Comparative Genocide Scholarship". In Stone, Dan (ed.). The Historiography of Genocide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 42–70. doi:10.1057/9780230297784. ISBN 978-0-230-27955-1.
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