Addressing the Lack of Forensic Scientific Evidence and Expertise in the "Trigger Mechanisms" of Genocide Investigations.

The impetus to begin a legal investigation or prosecution of the crime of genocide is a "trigger mechanism," which serves as the prima facie case against the accused state or actor. Unlike domestic cases of homicide, the trigger mechanisms for international genocide investigations to date have not included any forensic evidence nor have they sought input from forensic scientists. The jurists tasked with addressing the trigger mechanisms were fully capable of assessing forensic evidence but unable to generate it. This study reviews four recent large-scale investigations of genocide in Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur and Myanmar to reveal pitfalls in the cases that could have been avoided by the earlier inclusion of scientific expertise, and identifies the potential contributions of forensic science in future investigations.

The enduring mental health impact of mass violence: a community comparison study of Cambodian civilians living in Cambodia and Thailand.

BACKGROUND: No population-based studies have directly compared the long-term health and mental health outcomes of conflict- versus non-conflict-affected communities from the same ethnic background. AIMS: To identify and compare levels of psychiatric morbidity between a traumatized and non-traumatized civilian community; to investigate the long-term impact of mass violence. METHODS: Double-stratified community surveys in Siem Reap and Surin provinces were conducted by highly qualified Cambodian interviewers using culturally validated survey instruments with known psychometric properties. These included Cambodian versions of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Medical Outcome Study Short Form. RESULTS: Siem Reap and Surin respondents experienced 12,266 and 621 major trauma events, respectively; 745 (76.2%) Siem Reap respondents and six (0.6%) Surin respondents reported torture events; 499 (49.5%) Siem Reap respondents and 203 (19.7%) Surin respondents met the clinical threshold for depression (OR 4.01, 95% CI 3.29-4.88); 204 (20.6%) Siem Reap respondents and 23 (2.2%) Surin respondents met the clinical threshold for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (OR 11.39, 95% CI 7.3-17.7). The MOS physical disability was higher in Siem Reap versus Surin respondents (74 (7.5%) vs 13 (1.3%), χ(2) = 47.4 df = 1, p < .001). Health status was poorest among Siem Reap respondents when compared with Surin respondents (mean score 1.59 vs 0.59, respectively; t = 19.85 df = 2018, p < .001). Path analysis reveals that recent and past extreme violence are associated with the health and mental health status of the Siem Reap community. CONCLUSION: After 25 years, the Khmer civilian population that experienced the Pol Pot genocide continues to suffer psychiatric morbidity and poor health.

Mental health 15 years after the killings in Rwanda: imprisoned perpetrators of the genocide against the Tutsi versus a community sample of survivors.

Objectives of this study were to compare rates of mental health disorders in Rwandan genocide perpetrators with those of genocide survivors and to investigate potential predictors of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression for both groups. We expected high rates of mental disorders in both study groups and hypothesized that symptom severity would be predicted by female gender, older age, lower level of education, higher level of trauma exposure, lower level of agreement to reconciliation, and the participation in killing. Structured clinical interviews were carried out with 269 imprisoned perpetrators (66% men) and 114 survivors (64% women). Significantly more survivors than perpetrators met symptom criteria for PTSD (46% vs. 14%) and suffered from anxiety symptoms (59% vs. 36%). A substantial proportion of both groups suffered from clinically significant depression (46% vs. 41%). PTSD severity in perpetrators was associated with trauma exposure, high levels of agreement to reconciliation, and no participation in killing; the severity of depression was associated with trauma exposure and no participation in killing. In the survivor sample, the severity of PTSD and depression were both correlated with female gender, trauma exposure, and low levels of agreement to reconciliation. Results suggest that both groups exhibit considerable psychiatric morbidity.