Faculty Spotlight: Invisible Atrocities by Dr. Randle DeFalco

Abstract:
International criminal justice is, at its core, an anti-atrocity project. Yet just what an ‘atrocity’ is remains undefined and undertheorized. This book examines how associations between atrocity commission and the production of horrific spectacles shape the processes through which international crimes are identified and conceptualized, leading to the foregrounding of certain forms of mass violence and the backgrounding or complete invisibilization of others. In doing so, it identifies various, seemingly banal ways through which international crimes may be committed and demonstrates how the criminality of such forms of violence and abuse tends to be obfuscated. This book suggests that the failure to address these ‘invisible atrocities’ represents a major flaw in the current international criminal justice system, one that produces a host of problematic repercussions and undermines the legal legitimacy of international criminal law itself.

The book’s main case study is Cambodia. In particular, the myopic focus on violence at prisons, and other spectacular forms of violence at the expense of living and working conditions and enforced famine.

Access the book and read the open access Introduction here

You can also get a 20% discount using the code DEFALCO22.