This work considers the question of how political science as a discipline can engage with the phenomenon of genocide, and proposes a framework for studying it in the future. This framework consists of placing the state in one of three broad categories: that of perpetrator, of facilitator, or of agent of resistance. Each category is analyzed through the lens of a specific case: Bosnia (specifically the Republika Srpska), Rwanda, and Denmark during the Holocaust, respectively. The work concludes that this framework is useful in furthering qualitative studies of genocide after a traditional reticence by political scientists to engage with questions of mass killing.This dissertation is dedicated to the memories of those whose stories can never be told, to the victims of genocides past and present, and to those for whom justice can never come. May it be a small testament to the idea that every person, no matter their creed or origin, deserves to be heard and deserves to be remembered.