Mark Drumbl, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, has published a new book: Atrocity, Punishment and International Law.  It is the first major study on how people who commit atrocity crimes need to be punished.

Drumbl studied regions affected by atrocities, such as Rwanda, Bosnia, and East Timor, all of which have been wracked with high genocide and crime rates. He noted that although sentencing practices condemn genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, current measures are ineffective and do not properly deter crimes from recurring.

He notes that atrocity crimes are committed by people displaying adaptive or conformist behavior, not maladaptive or deviant behavior. Those who commit atrocities act as members of groups, not as individuals. Because they have different mindsets from ordinary criminals, their punishments must be handled differently, too.

Drumbl argues that there should be a “broader-based response.” In order to rectify problems that are rooted in societies and traditions, we must concentrate on reappraisal and self-improvement. Individuals should reevaluate their places in society instead of being punished for cultural problems.

Drumbl said, “It is time for international criminal law to reappraise its effectiveness and consider a broader response to atrocity that, although open to formal criminal trials, also includes the customs of the countries involved, as well as reparations, reconciliation, community service and the reintegration of perpetrators into society.”

Atrocity, Punishment and International Law has already received strong praise from the legal community. Allison Marston Danner, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, called the book “provocative and refreshingly skeptical about the supremacy of international law in the face of human evil.”

Besides overturning conventional international criminal law, Drumbl’s study offers a compelling argument for taking an alternative approach when tackling atrocity crimes. William A. Schabas, a professor at the National University of Ireland, said, “It is full of insights into the way forward, as we struggle to make sense of the new institutions.”

For more information on this story, please visit law.wlu.edu/news/storydetail.asp?id=262. More information on the book is available in the Cambridge catalog and at Amazon.com.