Genocide scholars resist widening the term to include killings lacking clear group-destruction intent.

Evidence

Some influential writers have resisted efforts to widen the definition of genocide or shift the criteria on which it rests. In spite of his efforts to include politically based killing as genocide, Kuper warns against using the term in a “loose and exaggerated way” (Kuper, 1981:59); he creates a category of “genocidal massacres,” which are excluded from the formal crime of “genocide,” to cover instances in which there is no clear intent to destroy the group. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 274

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘genocide’ as a formal legal crime from ‘genocidal massacres’ as a looser category.