Genocide Research Memo

Genocide is a term that most people in the world have heard of in one way or another. People may have heard it through any film viewings, books, or any other media outlet, the point is, many people have heard of genocide in one way or another. Though genocide may be generally known by most people, a fraction of those people may only have an in-depth understanding of what genocide exactly is. With all of that said, for the research memo, the topic of genocide is going to the subject of the research memo. The beginning part of the paper will focus on the history and origins of genocide. Following the origins of genocide, theories will be discussed to explain why people participate in genocide and why genocide happens for that matter. After the

Back some couple centuries ago, genocide committed by states was seen as heroic, as they were allowed to commit such an atrocity in pursuit of building a larger empire (Lecture 9/18). Keep in mind, that the term “genocide” had not been officially defined by that time, thus not containing the same meaning as it does today. Instead of being seen as evil, states that committed genocide were seen as heroic. In-fact, William Blackstone once said “the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principal of the English constitution (Lecture 9/18). It wasn’t until 1948, that the term “genocide” had been officially labeled as an official term and international crime. This was declared by the United Nations. One of the first trials to occur due to this was the Nuremberg Trials. In the Nuremberg Trials, twenty-four Nazi leaders and six Nazi organizations were convicted on four counts (Lecture 9/18). Of those twenty-four convicted, twelve of those people were sentenced to the death penalty for the crimes they had committed. Fast-forwarding to the 90’s, 120 countries had signed an international treaty that established the International Court. The International Court was established in 1998 as a result of the treaty and it gave the ICC the jurisdiction to prosecute any related Genocide crimes (History.com). Before I move on

This has to do with a number of things. First, genocide is more likely to happen in areas where there is immobility, cultural distance, and inequality (Campbell 160). Greater immobility’s are linked to genocide occurring, while less immobility is linked to less genocide occurring. In addition, genocide is more likely to happen in an area that is considered to be a “downward direction”. This means it would happen to groups that are a lower socially ethnic groups rather than a higher up group. In other words, genocide is less likely to happen in an upward or lateral direction (Campbell 160). In relational distance, genocide is more likely to take place as well. Relational distance refers to the extent to which participate in each other’s lives (Campbell 162). For example, ethnic groups who do not communicate as much with other groups would be deemed as and seen as being in the category of relational distance. In addition, this term can apply to refugees or migrates who flee violence to go to “safer” countries, at least in their opinion. For example, shortly before the holocaust, Eastern European Jews immigrated to cities in Germany in large amount of numbers making them highly visible to being rationally distant. Because of this, the Jews are more vulnerable to being victimized by the Nazis because of their status. As far as functional independence goes, it has been known that genocide is more likely to