Antisocial capital: a profile of Rwandan genocide perpetrators’ social networks

McDoom, Omar Shahabudin ORCID: 0000-0001-5660-1903 (2014) Antisocial capital: a profile of Rwandan genocide perpetrators’ social networks. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 58 (5). pp. 866-894. ISSN 1552-8766

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Abstract

Although popularly perceived as a positive force, social capital may also produce socially undesirable outcomes. Drawing on Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, this article shows that participation in its violence was partly determined by the features of individuals’ social networks. Perpetrators possessed larger networks in general and more connections to other perpetrators in particular. The quality as well as quantity of connections also mattered. Strong ties generally, and kinship and neighborly ties specifically, were strong predictors of participation. In contrast, possession of countervailing ties to nonparticipants was not significant. In explaining these findings, I suggest participants’ networks fulfilled functions of information diffusion, social influence, and behavioral regulation. The findings point to the importance of social structure and suggest that relational data should complement individual attribute data in predicting participation in collective violence.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://jcr.sagepub.com/
Additional Information:	© 2013 The Author
Divisions:	Government
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	28 Jan 2013 13:49
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 00:33
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/48117

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