Time and the Visibility of Slow Atrocity Violence

21 Int’l Crim. L. Rev. 905.

Posted: 2 Aug 2021 Last revised: 2 Mar 2022

See all articles by Randle C. DeFalco

Randle C. DeFalco

Widener University - Widener University School of Law

Date Written: 2021

Abstract

This article explores the role of time in obfuscating the criminality of international crimes committed through the cumulative effects of various actions that, on their own, appear banal and seemingly non-criminal in nature. It demonstrates how assessments of individual culpability continue to predominantly focus on the identification of discrete transactions that are intuitively recognizable as criminal in nature. This approach helps perpetuate the obfuscation of the criminality of slow, unfamiliar atrocity processes lacking easily identifiable moments of criminality. The selective recognition of atrocity crimes in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period and post-independence Myanmar are analyzed as examples of this failure to recognize the criminality of international crimes committed through slow, attritive means.

Keywords: Transitional Justice, Slow Violence, Cambodia, Myanmar, Atrocity, Violence, International Criminal Law, Visibility, Khmer Rouge, Rohingya

JEL Classification: law, transitional justice, international criminal justice

Suggested Citation

DeFalco, Randle C., Time and the Visibility of Slow Atrocity Violence (2021). 21 Int’l Crim. L. Rev. 905., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3895797

Randle C. DeFalco (Contact Author)

Widener University - Widener University School of Law ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
P.O. Box 7286
Wilmington, DE 19803-0474
United States

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