Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal?

Not all perpetrators are 'normal'. Some are narcissists or psychopaths. In today's epsiode, we mostly focus on this latter group, specifically in relation to their conscience. Do psychopaths have one? How does it affect their actions? Are people born as a psychopath or are psychopaths products of their environments? Marijana Vujosevic is a university lecturer of moral and political phi...

This is Terribly and Terribly Normal? A podcast series on the perpetrators of mass atrocities by Nicola Quaedvlieg and Alette Smeulers.

The distinction between perpetrators and victims of mass atrocities may seem clear. However, in reality, some people are both victims and perpetrators at the same time. In this episode, we discuss two such examples, namely that of Dominic Ongwen and Ans van Dijk. What is their story? Can they be blamed for their crimes? And how should criminal law account for such cases? We do so together with Pro...

Trading weapons, selling hostages and privatizing armies: war is a booming business. But how big is the role of money in mass atrocities? Together with Annika van Baar, who is an assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, we discuss this question. We’ll try to find out the profitability of human rights violations and analyze situations ranging from those involving Nazi Germany and...

Adolf Eichmann was one of the main executioners of the genocide during the Second World War. He is the personification of the banality of evil, the famous phrase Hannah Arendt used to describe him. In today's session, we discuss Eichman and others like Duch, the director of the Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Pen in Cambodia during the genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge together with Dr. Thijs Bouw...

What is the role of obedience in mass atrocities? Do people just blindly follow orders? How important are groups and what about conformity? In this session we discuss what we can learn from social-psychology when studying the perpetrators of mass atrocities. We do so together with Maria Ioannou who is a social-psychologist of the University College in Groningen.

Terrorist groups like the Islamic State and regimes like Nazi Germany often justify their crimes through their ideology. Did they really believe they did the right thing or was ideology used as an excuse to commit evil? In this episode, we discuss the role of ideology in mass atrocities together with Dr. Pieter Nanninga from the University of Groningen. He is an expert on terrorism and studied, am...

Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic and Vladimir Putin: they are the leaders at the top of authoritarian, dictatorial and violent states. Who are they and what is their role in the perpetration of mass atrocities? In this session we discuss these questions with Dr. Maartje Weerdesteijn from VU University who studied the role of dictators in the perpetration of mass atrocities a...

Who are the perpetrators of mass atrocities? Are they pure evil sadists who are mentally disturbed or rather ordinary people who are terribly and terrifyingly normal as Hannah Arendt suggested when seeing the trial of Adolf Eichmann? In this episode Alette Smeulers will discuss her research and findings on perpetrators of mass atrocities and will focus on all the different kind of people who get i...