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2 - The Atrocity Aesthetic

International Crimes as Horrific Spectacles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2022

Randle C. DeFalco
Randle C. DeFalco
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
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Summary

This chapter assesses the role aesthetics play in the social construction of dominant shared understandings of the so-called core crimes of ICL: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It demonstrates how, since the inception of ICL, widely shared understandings of these crimes have remained grounded in an aesthetics of horrific spectacle, which I refer to as the “atrocity aesthetic.” That is, shared understandings of both atrocity and international crime are associated with spectacular acts of horrific violence and abuse, reflecting deeply held, if rarely articulated, assumptions concerning how genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes will manifest themselves and the means through which they may be committed.

Keywords

Social ConstructivismAestheticsNeuroaestheticsSelectivityInternational Criminal LawInternational Criminal JusticeSpectacle
Type
Chapter
Information
Invisible Atrocities
The Aesthetic Biases of International Criminal Justice
 , pp. 24 - 62
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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