In order to be able to understand and explain violence and conflict, a perspective on perpetrators is central. This chapter contributes to this by introducing some of the insights in the interdisciplinary research on perpetrators. The chapter argues that an action-oriented perspective on perpetration (instead of actor-centered arguments focused on the perpetrators themselves) can be helpful, among other things, to uncover more complex roles of parallel perpetration, rescuing and victimhood. Which motivations cause perpetration are dealt with centrally in the article, whereby a distinction is made between motivations that focus on the ingroup of the perpetrators, on the outgroup of the victims or on the opportunistic interests of the perpetrators. Motivations, in turn, are differentiated from factors that do not give the actual impetus to participate but have a facilitative effect or provide a framing context. This chapter also explains how different post-conflict societies can deal with former perpetrators after the end of violence and which different programmes can be implemented. Overall, in practice, we can derive ideas on more complex prevention work from this perpetrator-oriented perspective on violence.
perpetratorscomplex political actorsmotivationsTäter*innentransitional justiceperpetrationsocial identity theorygenocideviolenceComplex Political Actorsterrorism
