Extraordinary Evil, Ordinary Crime: A Framework for Understanding Transitional Justice

The author claims that the rationale behind the preference for prosecution is the assumption that atrocious human rights violations are in fact crimes, and the Western conceptual framework for dealing with ordinary crime revolves around prosecutors, judges, and trials. In this context, the author asks whether ordinary crime really is an appropriate analogy for massive human right atrocities or an extraordinary evil. She questions whether prosecutions constitute the best method of redressing criminal actions in the context of transitional justice.