Intergroup struggles over victimhood in violent conflict
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758017745617 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Intergroup struggles over
victimhood in violent conflict:
The victim-perpetrator
paradigm
Sarah Jankowitz
University of Sheffield, UK
Abstract
Many groups in violent, intergroup conflict perceive themselves to be the primary or sole victims of
that conflict. This often results in contention over who may claim victim status and complicates a
central aim of post-conflict processes, which is to acknowledge and address harms experienced by
the victims. Drawing from victimology scholarship and intergroup relations theory, this article
proposes the victim-perpetrator paradigm as a framework to analyse how, why and to what end
groups in conflict construct and maintain their claims to the moral status of victim. This inter-
disciplinary paradigm builds on the knowledge that groups utilise the ‘ideal victim’ construction to
exemplify their own innocence and blamelessness in contrast to the wickedness of the perpe-
trator, setting the two categories as separate and mutually exclusive even where experiences of
violence have been complex. Additionally, this construction provides for a core intergroup need to
achieve positive social identity, which groups may enhance by demonstrating a maximum differ-
entiation between the in-group as victims and those out-groups identified as perpetrators. The
paradigm contributes greater knowledge on the social processes underpinning victim contention in
conflict, as well as how groups legitimise their violence against out-groups during and after conflict.
Keywords
Victimhood, conflict, intergroup relations, responsibility, violence
Introduction
Societies emerging from violent conflict around the world face a growing obligation to develop
processes that serve to build peace and prevent a return to violence. Across th e many ‘post-
conflict’ mechanisms and systems designed to consolidate peace, a core assumption persists that
Corresponding author:
Sarah Jankowitz, The University of Sheffield, 41 Toyne Street, Sheffield S10 1HH, UK.
Email: s.jankowitz@sheffield.ac.uk
International Review of Victimology
2018, Vol. 24(3) 259–271
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758017745617
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