 Political Opportunities and Local Contingencies in Mass Crime Participation: Personal Experiences by Former Serbian MilitiamenSamuel Tanner Global Crime, 2007, vol. 8, issue 2, 152-171 Abstract: Participation in mass crime is often approached from a top-down perspective that centralizes the actions of the masses under the order of elites and leaders. While there is some evidence to support this approach, a more complete assessment of participation in mass crime must also consider the grassroots contingencies that unite the collective motivation and capacity that induce such actions. Such a bottoms-up approach is developed in this article with a particular focus on the personal experiences of former Serbian militiamen who took part in scenes of mass violence in Croatia and Bosnia--Herzegovina. Interviews with former militiamen illustrate how political opportunities, diverging nationalistic attitudes, proximity to growing violence in increasingly localized killing fields, incentives to participate in parallel criminal activities, and an influence within community networks that were submerged in mass crimes united to legitimize and facilitate their personal commitment to the events that took place in this region during the 1990s. Date: 2007 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:fglcxx:v:8:y:2007:i:2:p:152-171 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/17440570701362273 Access Statistics for this article Global Crime is currently edited by Carlo Morselli More articles in Global Crime from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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