Motivational change in the perpetration of genocidal violence

Abstract

While the study of perpetrators has benefited greatly from burgeoning work on motivations for participating in genocidal violence, there is a considerable gap regarding how these motivations change over time. This article draws on psychological theories to provide an approach to understanding such motivational change. In the interaction of situational and dispositional approaches, the article proposes that motivations derive from and are structured by hierarchies of needs and that these hierarchies can change through three processes of adaption within the hierarchy: motivation addition, motivation removal and hierarchy re-ordering. The article is primarily conceptual but draws on insights from various different cases in its development and illustrates the model with empirical examples of motivations for participating in genocidal violence.