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Methods, Interpretation, and Ethics in the Study of White Supremacist Perpetrators
in Conflict and Society
Author:
Kathleen M. Blee
Kathleen M. Blee
University of Pittsburgh, USA kblee@pitt.edu
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Interpretive and ethical frameworks circumscribe how we study the perpetrators of politically motivated violence against civilian populations. This article revisits the author’s studies of two eras of white supremacism in the United States, the 1920s and 1980s–1990s, to examine how these were affected by four frameworks of inquiry: the assumption of agency, the allure of the extraordinary, the tendency to categorical analysis, and the presumption of net benefit. It concludes with suggestions on how scholars can avoid the limitations of these frameworks.