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The Intensity of the Rwandan Genocide: Measures from the Gacaca Records

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  • Verpoorten Marijke

    (University of Antwerp)

Abstract

This article illustrates how fine continuous and categorical measures of genocide intensity can be derived from the records of the Rwandan transitional justice system. The data, which include the number of genocide suspects and genocide survivors across 1484 administrative sectors, are highly skewed and contain a non-negligible number of outlying observations. A number of genocide proxies are subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to obtain a genocide index, and the effect of survival bias on this index is reduced by augmenting the set of genocide proxies subjected to PCA with the distance from an administrative sector to the nearest mass grave. Finally, the administrative sectors are divided into distinct categories of low, moderate and high genocide intensity by means of Local Indicators of Spatial Auto-Correlation (LISA) that allow identifying significant high-high and low-low clusters of genocide intensity.

Suggested Citation

  • Verpoorten Marijke, 2012. "The Intensity of the Rwandan Genocide: Measures from the Gacaca Records," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:18:y:2012:i:1:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/1554-8597.1244
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    2. Willa Friedman, 2013. "Local Economic Conditions and Participation in the Rwandan Genocide," HiCN Working Papers 160, Households in Conflict Network.
    3. Bonnier, Evelina & Poulsen, Jonas & Rogall, Thorsten & Stryjan, Miri, 2015. "Preparing for Genocide: Community Work in Rwanda," Working Paper Series 2015:1, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    4. Coutts, Alexander, 2024. "The age of consequences: Unraveling conflict's impact on social preferences, norm enforcement, and risk-taking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 48-67.
    5. Anderton Charles H. & Carter John R., 2015. "A New Look at Weak State Conditions and Genocide Risk," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 1-36, January.
    6. Giulia La Mattina, 2014. "Civil Conflict, Sex Ratio and Intimate Partner Violence in Rwanda," HiCN Working Papers 175, Households in Conflict Network.
    7. La Mattina, Giulia, 2018. "How persistent is the effect of conflict on primary education? Long-run evidence from the Rwandan genocide," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 32-35.
    8. Leander Heldring, 2014. "State Capacity and Violence: Evidence from the Rwandan genocide," CSAE Working Paper Series 2014-08, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    9. Bundervoet, Tom & Fransen, Sonja, 2018. "The educational impact of shocks in utero: Evidence from Rwanda," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 88-101.
    10. Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira & Jared F Edgerton & Laura C Frizzell, 2023. "Analyzing Participation in the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 60(2), pages 291-306, March.
    11. Giulia La Mattina, 2014. "Civil Conflict, Sex Ratio and Intimate Partner Violence in Rwanda," Working Papers 0114, University of South Florida, Department of Economics.

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