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Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members without the intention to eliminate the whole group, or otherwise the killing of large numbers of people without a clear group membership.

Mass killing is used by a number of genocide scholars because genocide (its strict definition) does not cover mass killing events in which no specific ethnic or religious groups are targeted, or events in which perpetrators do not intend to eliminate whole groups or significant parts of them. Genocide scholars use different models in order to explain and predict the onset of mass killing events. There has been little consensus and no generally-accepted terminology, prompting scholars, such as Anton Weiss-Wendt, to describe comparative attempts a failure. Genocide scholarship rarely appears in mainstream disciplinary journals.

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. Mass killing has emerged as a "more straightforward" term than genocide or politicide. 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 state 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." 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 than genocide for describing killings with the intent of suppression of the bourgeoisie in communist states.
• Gendercide – the systematic killing of members of a specific gender.
• 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"; 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. 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. 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. 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.
• 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. Genocide is also a popular term for political killings which are studied academically as democide and politicide.
• Mass killing – referencing earlier definitions, 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." 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.
• 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. Barbara Harff studies genocide and politicide, sometimes shortened as geno-politicide, to include the mass killing of political, economic, ethnic, and cultural groups.

In the United States, the Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, passed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, clarified the statutory authority for federal law enforcement agencies to provide investigatory assistance to the States, and mandated across federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, a definition of "mass killing" as three or more killings during an incident, while making no reference to the choice of weapon.

Topology

Benjamin Valentino outlines two major categories of mass killings: dispossessive mass killing and coercive mass killing. The first category defines three types: communist, ethnic, and territorial, containing the following scenarios of ethnic cleansing, killings that accompany agrarian reforms in some Communist states, and killings during colonial expansion, among others. The second category includes the types: counterguerrilla, terrorist, and imperialist, containing the following scenarios of killing during counterinsurgent warfare, and killings as part of the imperialist conquests by the Axis powers during the World War II, among others.

Analysis

Benjamin Valentino does not consider ideology or regime-type as an important factor that explains mass killings, and 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. About why it occurs, Valentino states that ideology, paranoia, and racism can shape leaders' beliefs for why genocide and mass killing may be justified. Unlike Rudolph Rummel and first-generation studies, Valentino does not see authoritarianism or totalitarianism as explaining mass killing; it is not ideology or regime-type but the leader's motive that matters and can explain it, which is in line with second-generation scholarship.

Manus Midlarsky also focuses on leaders' decision making but his case selection and general conclusions are different from Valentino's. Midlarsky has a narrower definition of the dependent variable and only analyzes three case studies (the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwanda genocide). Midlarsky tries to explain why individuals may comply with the culprits, why politicide rather than genocide happened in Cambodia (Cambodian genocide), and why ethnic minorities, such as Greeks in the Ottoman Empire and Jews in the Second Polish Republic, were not targeted for genocide. Like Michael Mann and Valentino to a lesser extent, Midlarsky mainly addresses genocides that did not take place. Both Midlarsky and Valentino mainly focus on proximate conditions, while Mann considers genocide within the broad context of ideologies and nation-states development.

Global databases of mass killings

At least two global databases of mass killings are available. The first compilation by Rudolph Rummel covers a time period from the beginning of the 20th century until 1987 covering democide, while the second compilation by Barbara Harff combines politicide and genocide since 1955. The Harff database is the most frequently used by genocide scholars, while the Rummel database is a good framework for studying mass killings during the 1900–1987 period.

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. A comparative analysis of the Yugoslav data in 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 as arising from flaws in Rummel's statistical methodology, and Rummel's response was not convincing.

Another comparative analysis of the two complete databases by Atsushi Tago and Frank W. Wayman revealed that the significant difference between the figures is explained by Harff's dataset of politicide-geoncide being essentially a subset of Rummel's dataset, where he includes other types of killings in addition to politicide-genocide.

See also

• Mass murder
• List of battles by casualties
• List of genocides by death toll
• Mass killings under communist regimes
• Genocide of indigenous peoples
• Anti-communist mass killings

Notes

1. 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." 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.
2. It is not a complete list of all examples.
3. The list does not include deaths from the Great Chinese Famine and the Great Leap Forward.

References

1. Staub 1989, p. 8: "Mass killing means 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."
2. Staub 2011, p. 100: "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."
3. Krain 1997.
4. Valentino 2004.
5. ^ Stone 2008, p. 2.
6. Weiss-Wendt 2008.
7. Verdeja 2012.
8. Krain 1997, pp. 331–332: "The literatures on state-sponsored mass murder and state terrorism have been plagued by definitional problems."
9. Valentino 2004, p. 6: "No generally accepted terminology exists to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants."
10. 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."
11. Verdeja 2012, p. 307: "Although the field has grown enormously over the past decade and a half, genocide scholarship still rarely appears in mainstream disciplinary journals."
12. 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."
13. ^ Tago & Wayman 2010.
14. Mann 2005, p. 17.
15. Sémelin 2007, p. 37.
16. La Puma, John (1987-05-01). "Gendercide: The Implications of Sex Selection". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 257 (17): 2362. doi:10.1001/jama.1987.03390170118043. ISSN 0098-7484.
17. ^ Harff 2017.
18. Harff 1996.
19. ^ Harff 2003.
20. Curthoys & Docker 2008, p. 7.
21. Schaak 1997; Schabas 2009, p. 160; Jones 2010, p. 137.
22. Easterly, Gatti & Kurlat 2006.
23. ^ Esteban, Morelli & Rohner 2010.
24. Valentino 2004, p. 91.
25. Bach-Lindsday, Huth & Valentino 2004, p. 387.
26. Tago & Wayman 2010, pp. 4, 11–12.
27. Gurr & Harff 1988.
28. Krouse, William J.; Richardson, Daniel J. (July 30, 2015). Mass Murder with Firearms: Incidents and Victims, 1999–2013 (PDF) (Report). Congressional Research Service. p. 26. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 6, 2015.
29. Booty, Marisa; O'Dwyer, Jayne; Webster, Daniel; McCourt, Alex; Crifasi, Cassandra (2019). "Describing a "mass shooting": the role of databases in understanding burden". Injury Epidemiology. 6 (47): 47. doi:10.1186/s40621-019-0226-7. PMC 6889601. PMID 31828004.
30. Ye Hee Lee, Michelle (December 3, 2015). "Obama's inconsistent claim on the 'frequency' of mass shootings in the U.S. compared to other countries". Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 5, 2021. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
31. Albright, Mandi (March 17, 2021). "Spa killings another grisly chapter in Georgia history". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
32. Straus 2007, p. 116: "Among them, 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."
33. Valentino 2004, p. 70.
34. Valentino 2004, p. 60: "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." See also p. 70 to read Valentino outlining his proposed two major categories of mass killing.
35. Straus 2007, pp. 484–485: "Valentino makes a quite different argument. The pivot of his cogent and parsimonious analysis is that genocide and mass killing emerge from the strategic calculations of leaders—that genocide and mass killing are calculated, instrumental, and deliberate policies that leaders choose to accomplish certain goals. ... A key question for Valentino is why leaders would choose the strategy of genocide and mass killing. Valentino argues that ideology, racism, and paranoia can shape why leaders believe that genocide and mass killing is the right course of action."
36. Tago & Wayman 2010, p. 5: "Disagreeing with Rummel's finding that authoritarian and totalitarian government explains mass murder, Valentino (2004) argues that regime type does not matter; to Valentino the crucial thing is the motive for mass killing (Valentino, 2004: 70). He divides motive into the two categories of dispossessive mass killing (as in ethnic cleansing, colonial enlargement, or collectivization of agriculture) and coercive mass killing (as in counter-guerrilla, terrorist, and Axis imperialist conquests)."
37. ^ Straus 2007.
38. Straus 2007, pp. 485–486.
39. Dulić 2004.
40. Rummel 2004.
41. Gleditish 2017, p. 10.

Bibliography

• Tago, Atsushi; Wayman, Frank (January 2010). "Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing, 1949–87". Journal of Peace Research. 47 (1). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications: 3–13. doi:10.1177/0022343309342944. ISSN 0022-3433. JSTOR 25654524. S2CID 145155872.
• Bach-Lindsday, Dylan; Huth, Paul; Valentino, Benjamin (May 2004). "Draining the Sea: Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare". International Organization. 58 (2). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press: 375–407. doi:10.1017/S0020818304582061. JSTOR 3877862. S2CID 154296897.
• Charny, Israel W., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Genocide (1st ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-874-36928-1.
• Curthoys, Ann; Docker, John (2008). "Defining Genocide". In Stone, Dan (ed.). The Historiography of Genocide (paperback ed.). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 7–41. ISBN 978-0-230-27955-1.
• Dulić, Tomislav (January 2004). "Tito's Slaughterhouse: A Critical Analysis of Rummel's Work on Democide". Journal of Peace Research. 41 (1). Thousands Oaks, California: SAGE Publications: 85‒102. doi:10.1177/0022343304040051. JSTOR 4149657. S2CID 145120734.
• Easterly, William; Gatti, Roberta; Kurlat, Sergio (June 2006). "Development, Democracy, and Mass Killings". Journal of Economic Growth. 11 (2). New York City, New York: Springer: 129–156. doi:10.1007/s10887-006-9001-z. JSTOR 40216091. S2CID 195313778.
• Esteban, Joan Maria; Morelli, Massimo; Rohner, Dominic (May 2010). "Strategic Mass Killings". Working Paper No. 486. Zurich Switzerland: Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich. SSRN 1615375.
• Gleditish, N. P., ed. (2017). R.J. Rummel: An Assessment of His Many Contributions. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice. Vol. 37. New York City, New York: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-54463-2.
• Gurr, Ted Robert; Harff, Barbara (September 1988). "Toward Empirical Theory of Genocides and Politicides: Identification and Measurement of Cases since 1945". International Studies Quarterly. 32 (3). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley: 359–371. doi:10.2307/2600447. ISSN 0020-8833. JSTOR 2600447.
• Harff, Barbara (Summer 1996). "Review: Death by Government by R. J. Rummel". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 27 (1). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press: 117–119. doi:10.2307/206491. JSTOR 206491.
• 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. 97 (1). Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association: 57–73. doi:10.1017/S0003055403000522. JSTOR 3118221. S2CID 54804182.
• Harff, Barbara (2017). "The Comparative Analysis of Mass Atrocities and Genocide". In Gleditish, N. P. (ed.). R.J. Rummel: An Assessment of His Many Contributions. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice. Vol. 37. New York City, New York: Springer. pp. 111–129. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54463-2_12. ISBN 978-3-319-54463-2.
• Jones, Adam (2010). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (English paperback 2nd ed.). London, England: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-48619-4.
• Krain, Matthew (June 1997). "State-Sponsored Mass Murder: The Onset and Severity of Genocides and Politicides". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 41 (3). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications: 331–360. doi:10.1177/0022002797041003001. ISSN 0022-0027. JSTOR 174282. S2CID 143852782.
• Mann, Michael (2005). The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing (English paperback ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53854-1.
• Ott, Attiat (2011). "Modeling Mass Killing: For Gain or Ethnic Cleansing?". In Hartley, Keith (ed.). Handbook on the Economics of Conflict. Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 52–79. ISBN 978-0-857-93034-7.
• Schaak, Beth (May 1997). "The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot". The Yale Law Journal. 106 (7): 2259‒2291. doi:10.2307/797169. JSTOR 797169.
• Sémelin, Jacques; et al. (Hoffman, Stanley) (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 City, New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14282-3.
• Staub, Ervin (1989). The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (illustrated, reprinted, revised paperback ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-42214-7.
• Staub, Ervin (2011). Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism (illustrated, reprinted hardback ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-38204-4.
• Stone, Dan, ed. (2008). The Historiography of Genocide (paperback ed.). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-27955-1.
• Straus, Scott (April 2007). "Review: Second-Generation Comparative Research on Genocide". World Politics. 59 (3). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press: 476–501. doi:10.1017/S004388710002089X. JSTOR 40060166. S2CID 144879341.
• Valentino, Benjamin (2004). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (hardback ed.). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-801-43965-0. OCLC 53013098.
• Verdeja, Ernesto (June 2012). "The Political Science of Genocide: Outlines of an Emerging Research Agenda". Perspectives on Politics. 10 (2). Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association: 307–321. doi:10.1017/S1537592712000680. JSTOR 41479553. S2CID 145170749.
• Weiss-Wendt, Anton (2008). "Problems in Comparative Genocide Scholarship". In Stone, Dan (ed.). The Historiography of Genocide (paperback ed.). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 42–70. doi:10.1057/9780230297784. ISBN 978-0-230-27955-1.

Further reading

• Esteban, Joan Maria; Morelli, Massimo; Rohner, Dominic (October 2015). "Strategic Mass Killings". Journal of Political Economy. 123 (5). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press: 1087–1132. doi:10.1086/682584. S2CID 154859371.
• Schaak, Beth (2007). "The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot". In Campbell, Tom; Lattimer, Mark (eds.). Genocide and Human Rights (1st eBook ed.). London, England: Routledge. pp. 140–173. doi:10.4324/9781351157568. ISBN 978-1-351-15756-8.
• Schabas, William A. (2009). Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes (2nd hardcover ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-71900-1.
• Sémelin, Jacques; et al. (Hoffman, Stanley) (2007). "The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide". 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 City, New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 310–361. ISBN 978-0-231-14282-3.

External links

• Easterly, William; Gatti, Roberta; Kurlat, Sergio (June 2006). "Development, Democracy, and Mass Killings" (PDF). Journal of Economic Growth. 11 (2). New York City, New York: Springer: 129–156. doi:10.1007/s10887-006-9001-z. JSTOR 40216091. S2CID 195313778. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021 – via William Easterly.
• Harff, Barbara (2003). "Genocide Politicide". CIDCM. Center for International Development and Conflict Management. Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
• Harff, Barbara (February 2003). "No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955" (PDF). The American Political Science Review. 97 (1). Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association: 57–73. doi:10.1017/S0003055403000522. JSTOR 3118221. S2CID 54804182. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021 – via Genocide Watch.
• 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. Vol. 37. New York City, New York: Springer. pp. 111–129. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54463-2_12. ISBN 978-3-319-54463-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
• Rummel, Rudolph (2003) . Statistic of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 (hardback ed.). Charlottesville, Virginia: Center for National Security Law, School of Law, University of Virginia; Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University. ISBN 978-3-825-84010-5. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021 – via Power Kills.
• Rummel, Rudolph (January 2004). "One-Thirteenth of a Data Point Does Not a Generalization Make: A Response to Dulić*". Journal of Peace Research. 41 (1). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications: 103–104. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.989.5581. doi:10.1177/0022343304040500. S2CID 109403016.
• Schaak, Beth (May 1997). "The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot". The Yale Law Journal. 106 (7): 2259‒2291. doi:10.2307/797169. JSTOR 797169. Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2021 – via Digital Commons.
• Verdeja, Ernesto (June 2012). "The Political Science of Genocide: Outlines of an Emerging Research Agenda". Perspectives on Politics. 10 (2). Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association: 307–321. doi:10.1017/S1537592712000680. JSTOR 41479553. S2CID 145170749. ProQuest 1016173088. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021 – via ProQuest.

• Genocide studies
• Killings by type
• Mass murder
• War crimes by type