Practiced violence systematically widens to ever-larger victim circles.

Evidence

Harm-doing and violence normally expand. Even when torture was part of the legal process in Europe, in the Middle Ages, over time the circle of its victims enlarged. First it was used only with lower-class defendants, later also with upper-class defendants, and then even with witnesses, in order to obtain information from them (Peters, 1985). In Germany, in addition to the increas­ ing mistreatment of Jews, other forms of violence, such as the euthanasia program and the killing of mentally retarded, mentally ill, and physically deformed Germans (Davidowicz, 1975; Lifton, 1986)—who in the Nazis’ view diminished the genetic quality of the German race—contributed to psycho­ logical and institutional change and the possibility of greater violence. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 132

Categorization

• XREF: The expanding-circle-of-victims mechanism connects to the normalization of harm and to bystander-inaction dynamics covered throughout this chapter. — connects to: Mutual escalation between armed parties can enlarge victim circles far past the combatants. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 133; A tradition of aggression normalizes renewed group violence — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 104; Harm-doing notoriously expands its circle of victims and target classes over time — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 132 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Harm-doing notoriously expands its circle of victims and target classes over time #corroborates (0.95) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 132
• Mutual escalation between armed parties can enlarge victim circles far past the combatants. #expands (0.85) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 133
• Allport held that violence escalates gradually from prejudgment and animosity #corroborates (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 644
• Committing early harm spirals perpetrators into escalating violence via rationalization. #expands (0.82) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1607
• A tradition of aggression normalizes renewed group violence #expands (0.78) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 104
• Saturation and retraction, not expansion, now generate violence #contradicts (0.78) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 247
• Everyday microaggressions cumulatively make targets more vulnerable to lethal violence #expands (0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 143
• Male-dominated violence scales from individual homicide up to interstate warfare. #exemplifies (0.74) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1202
• Collective violence nearly always activates a we-they boundary from among multiple available identities #expands (0.74) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 769