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115 Colum. L. Rev. 1157 (2015)
Of Monsters and Men: Perpetrator Trauma and Mass Atrocity

handle is hein.journals/clr115 and id is 1217 raw text is: OF MONSTERS AND MEN: PERPETRATOR TRAUMA AND MASS ATROCITY Saira Mohamed* In popular, scholarly, and legal discourse, psychological trauma is an experience that belongs to victims. While we expect victims of crimes to suffer trauma, we never ask whether perpetrators likewise experience those same crimes as trauma. Indeed, if we consider trauma in the perpetration of a crime at all, it is usually to inquire whether a terrible experience earlier in life drove a person toward wrongdoing. We are loath to acknowledge that the commission of the crime itself may cause some perpetrators to experience their own psychological injury and scarring. This Article aims to fill this gap in our understanding of crime and trauma by initiating a long-overdue conversation about perpetrator trauma. Specifcally, this Article argues that perpetrator trauma exists and merits attention. In doing so, it traces a cultural evolution in the concept of trauma from a psychological category to a moral one, and in response, it proposes a counternarrative of trauma-one that recognizes trauma as a neutral, human trait, divorced from morality, and not incompatible with choice and agency. Finally, this Article argues that we ignore this counternarrative of trauma at our peril. Acknowledging the reality of perpetrator trauma can improve reconciliation efforts in the aftermath of mass atrocity by exposing the need to rehabilitate perpetrators. As importantly, recog- nizing perpetrator trauma erodes the all-too-common perception of perpetrators as cartoonish monsters by exposing their ordinariness and * Assistant Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. For illuminating comments and conversations, I thank Kathy Abrams, Ty Alper, Roxanna Altholz, Michelle Wilde Anderson, Nels Bangerter, Ryan Bochnak, Andrew Bradt, Dick Buxbaum, Kate Chandler, Nancy Combs, Klaus Corcilius, Steven Davidoff Solomon, Kristina Daugirdas, Caroline Davidson, Mark Drumbl, Chris Edley, Laurel Fletcher, Catherine Flynn, Stavros Gadinis, David Gamage, Monica Hakimi, Ian Haney-L6pez, Cori Hayden, Shannon Jackson, Maya Karwande, Chris Kutz, Katerina Linos, Laurent Mayali, Jennifer Mnookin, Melissa Murray, Jamie O'Connell, Valerie Oosterveld, Sam Otter, Irina Paperno, Vicky Plaut, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Steve Ratner, Andrea Roth, Peter Sahlins, Jonathan Simon, Matiangai Sirleaf, David Sklansky, Sarah Song, Avani Mehta Sood, James Stewart, Karen Tani, Alan Tansman, Chris Tomlins, Jenia Turner, Beth Van Schaack, Leti Volpp, Harvey Weinstein, and participants in workshops at the American Society of International Law 2014 Research Forum, Berkeley Law Faculty Retreat and Junior Working Ideas Group, University of British Columbia School of Law, Michigan Law School, University of San Francisco School of Law, and UC Berkeley's Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, which generously supported this project. Kate Huddleston, Jessica Caplin, Maggie Byrne, and Richard Weir provided outstanding research assistance. Phil DiSanto and the staff of the Columbia Law Review provided excellent editorial assistance. 1157

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