The ten stages of genocide is an academic tool and a policy model which was created by

Gregory Stanton Gregory H. Stanton is the former Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. He is best known for his work in the area of genocide studies. He is the founder a ...

, the founding president of

Genocide Watch Gregory H. Stanton is the former Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. He is best known for his work in the area of genocide studies. He is the founder a ...

, in order to explain how

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

s occur. The stages of genocide are not linear, and as a result, several of them may occur simultaneously and they can only be stopped by international intervention, based on intervention measures which meet the

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

's requirements for intervention. Stanton's stages are a conceptual model with no real-world sampling for analyzing the events and processes that lead to genocides, and they are also a model for determining preventative measures. In 1996, Stanton presented a briefing paper called "The 8 Stages of Genocide" to the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

. In the paper, he suggested that genocides occur in eight stages that are "predictable but not inexorable". He presented it shortly after the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

, and it analyzed the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, the

Cambodian genocide The Cambodian genocide ( km, របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍នៅកម្ពុជា) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea genera ...

, and other genocides. The suggested intervention measures were ones that the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

government and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

could implement or influence other

European nations Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

to implement including

military invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

. Stanton first conceived and published the model in the 1987 Faulds Lecture at

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...

, also presented to the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...

in 1987. In 2012, he added two additional stages,

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

and

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

. Stanton's model is widely used in the teaching of comparative

genocide studies Genocide studies is an academic field of study that researches genocide. Genocide became a field of study in the mid-1940s, with the work of Raphael Lemkin, who coined ''genocide'' and started genocide research, and its primary subjects were the ...

in a variety of settings, ranging from university courses to

museum education Museum education is a specialized field devoted to developing and strengthening the education role of informal education spaces and institutions such as museums. In a critical report called ''Excellence and Equity'' published in 1992 by the Ameri ...

, settings which include the

Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum (formerly the Dallas Holocaust Museum Center for Education and Tolerance) is a history education museum in Dallas, Texas, in the West End Historic District at the southeast corner of N. Houston Street an ...

Ten stages

Analysis

Other genocide scholars have focused on the cultural and political conditions that lead to genocides. Sociologist

Helen Fein Helen Fein (1934 – May 14, 2022) was a historical sociologist and professor who specializes on genocide, human rights, collective violence and other issues. She is an author and editor of four books and monographs, a former associate of the Inte ...

showed that pre-existing

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

was correlated with the percentage of Jews who were killed in European countries during the Holocaust. Political scientists such as Dr.

Barbara Harff Barbara Harff (born 17 July 1942) is professor of political science emerita at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2003 and again in 2005 she was a distinguished visiting professor at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide S ...

have identified political characteristics of states that statistically correlate with risk of genocide: prior genocides with

impunity Impunity is avoidance of punishment, loss, or other negative consequences for an action. In the international law of human rights, impunity is failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a d ...

, political upheaval, exclusionary ideology,

autocracy Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...

, closed borders, and massive violations of human rights. Stanton's model places the risk factors in Harff's analysis into a processual structure. For instance: * Political instability is a characteristic of what

Leo Kuper Leo Kuper (20 November 1908 – 23 May 1994) was a South African sociologist specialising in the study of genocide. Early life and legal career Kuper was born to a Lithuanian Jewish family. His siblings included his sister Mary (d. 1948), who ...

called "divided societies" with deep rifts, as in ''classification''. * Naming and identifying members of the group occurs through ''symbolization''. * Groups targeted by the state are victims of ''discrimination''. * An exclusionary ideology is central to ''dehumanization''. * Autocratic regimes foster the ''organization'' of hate groups. * An ethnically polarized elite is characteristic of ''polarization''. * Lack of openness to trade and other influences from outside a state's borders is characteristic of ''preparation''. * Massive violations of human rights are examples of ''persecution''. * ''Extermination'' of the group in whole or in part legally constitutes Genocide. * Impunity after previous genocides is evidence of ''denial''. Stanton has suggested that "ultimately, the best antidote to genocide is popular education and the development of social and cultural tolerance for diversity."

References

Notes

{{Notelist Genocide education Stage theories

Ten stages

Analysis

See also

References

Notes