The ‘ideal perpetrator’: The French National Railways and the social construction of accountability

Abstract

Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find themselves held accountable. How are these few selected? This article offers a framework that is useful for understanding how the condemned often embody attributes that keep them in the spotlight. Because norms used to identify perpetrators can set the context for future violence, long-term security requires interrupting both the actions of perpetrators and the discourses about them. A form of praxis, this study of the contemporary conflict over the French National Railways’ (SNCF) amends-making for its World War II transport of deportees towards death camps considers how certain perpetrators come to stand for the many. The SNCF remains in the spotlight not because of greater culpability or an unwillingness to make amends but because it embodies attributes of an ‘ideal’ perpetrator: it is (1) strong, (2) abstractable, (3) representative of the nature of the crime, and (4) has a champion-opponent who focuses attention on the perpetrator. Understanding the labeling process makes visible who and what we ignore at our own peril.

Black, White, and Read all Over: Exploring Racial Bias in Print media Coverage of Serial Rape Cases

“…However, less research has been conducted on what it means to be an “ideal offender.” Greer and Jewkes (2005) maintain that by reporting on sensational crimes such as serial rape, they are portraying the offenders as the ultimate outsider: “They are portrayed in terms of…their utter detachment from the social, moral, and cultural universe of ordinary, decent people – their pure and unadulterated evil” (p. 21). Federman (2018) found that ideal perpetrators tend to be represented as strong, abstract, representatives of their crime, and have a champion-opponent who focuses the attention on the perpetrator.…”