victims of abuse of power john dussich
Abuse of Power
John P. J. Dussich
July , 2011
“The lust of power is the most flagrant of all the
passions.”
Tacitus
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Introduction
In 1532 Niccolo Machiavelli, a well
known Italian statesman and writer, in
trying to gain political favor with a corrupt
government so as to unite Italy, wrote
in his book The Prince, that “to get power
and remain in power a leader had to forget
ideals.” Although these suggestions did not
reflect his true philosophy and he wrote
outside his true convictions, it permanently
associated him with corruption and abuse.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
History
From antiquity to the present, history is
replete with dramatic and diverse
examples of individual victim abusers of
power. Some of the more infamous were:
Caligula, Nero, Attila the Hun, Genghis
Khan, Shaka the Zulu, Adolf Hilter, Josef
Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Slobodan
Milosović, and Saddam Hussein.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
History continued
However, some responses to abuses have
also motivated individual crusaders, who
became heroes on behalf of mass victim
suffering: Mahatma Gandhi, Harriet
Tubmen, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother
Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson
Mandela.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
For and Against Abuse
Two abusers
Two crusaders
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Examples of Abuse of Power victims:
1944 in Germany - Jews
1994 in Rwanda - Tutsis
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Some responses have been organized violent efforts
resulting in wars within and between nations.
Some have been peaceful efforts resulting in organizations
created to address major abuses: Amnesty International,
International Red Cross and Red Crescent, World Society of
Victimology, International Society for Social Defense.
The international instrument created in 1985 to alert the
world about the international resolve against abuse of
power was the United Nations Declaration of Basic
Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse
of Power.
The most recent organization created to deal directly and
legally with abusers of power is the International
Criminal Court located in the Hague, the Netherlands.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Basic Definitions
Abuse – The violation of a standard,
especially an agreed upon standard, where
persons, either “individually or collectively,
have suffered harm, including physical or
mental injury, emotional suffering, economic
loss or substantial impairment of fundamental
rights, through acts or omissions that do not
yet constitute violations of national criminal
laws but of internationally recognized norms
relating to human rights” (UN Declaration,
1985).
Power – “A recognized aggregation of forces
of significant magnitude that can exert a
major influence over people” (Dussich, 1991).
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Other Definitions
I define abuse of power as the
violation of an international standard
in the use of forces such that persons
are injured physically, mentally,
emotionally, economically, or in their
rights, as a direct and intentional
result of the misapplication of these
forces (Dussich, 1991).
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Causal Statement
Using the behavioral precepts of my Psycho/Social
Coping Theory, a causal statement for abuse of power
would be:
“Abuse of power results when a powerful social entity
(abuser) with extensive resources seeking specific
objectives, takes purposive actions (methods) to
obtain expected rewards, with little or no regard for
the injury caused to persons (victims), principles or
property. The expectations and methods used by the
abuser are shaped by learned, socio-cultural notions
that justify violations of international standards that
for them promise significant rewards with impunity.”
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Taxonomy
Based on this causal statement a
taxonomy is hereby presented based
on three of the main variables: an
abuser who misuses power; a method
which directs that power; and, a
victim who suffers from the abuse of
that power.
Using this taxonomy six infamous
examples of abuse of power are here
listed:
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Examples of Collective Abusers of
Power
Types of Abusers
Actual Abusers
Governements
Former South Africa
Corporations
Exxon's ship
"Valdez"
Methods used
Victims
Apartheid
Blacks and
Coloreds
Oil Pollution
Alaskan flora,
fauna, & environs
Rackteering
Businesses &
citizens
Crime
Organizations
Mafia
Religious
Organizations
Medieval Catholic
Church
Inquisition
“Heretics” - mostly
women
Prison guards
Torture & excessive
force
Inmates
Ku Klux Klan
Intimidation,
assault and Murder
Black Southern
Americans
Correctional
Institutions
Secret Societies
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Pragmatics
Measurement – the magnitude of the abuse of
power problem far exceeds the problem of
conventional crime. Yet, few comprehensive
studies have been conducted to measure its extent
and nature. The closest estimates indicate that the
number of abuse of power killings from the last
century were close to the entire world
population at the time of Jesus Christ just two
millennia ago (169 million compared to about
200 millon) (Rummel, 1997).
This means that more humans have been killed
because of the abuse of power in the past century
than in any of the other previous centuries.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
PRAGMATICS continued
In almost all abuse of power events great rewards
were reaped by the abusers; in almost all cases
abusers enjoyed complete impunity from their
mass victimizations; and, in some cases the
abusers were made heroes as a direct result of
their actions towards their victims.
Prevention – To effectively achieve any success
at positive social change we must go beyond
repeated descriptions of abuses of power (no
matter how compelling). We must move to
actions that can directly thwart those abuser
decisions which give rise to abuse of power
behaviors.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Theory
The three most often cited theoretical perspectives on
international conflict are: the functionalist, the conflict and
the social psychological.
The functionalist perspective focuses on the product of
world disorganization. Each nation has different self
interests; as these collide with one another, disputes arise
which result in war and produce mass victimization.
The conflict perspective focuses on economic and
political exploitation. The capitalist nations obtain labor and
raw materials from underdeveloped nations reaping vast
profits; and, in their wake, leave large numbers of victims.
The social psychological perspective considers both
individual and cultural issues. Thus,. instinctive as well as
learned aggressiveness produces a sense of ethnocentric
territoriality, which when threatened, produces armed
warfare and mass victimization.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Conclusions
It is clear that our world mechanisms to prevent abuses of
power by rouge leaders is, for the most part, ineffective. If
the current trend continues, this next century will
experience an even greater number of abuses of power
and the victim numbers will exceed those of this century.
The facts are: the world population continues to grow at
an unprecedented rate (if current growth continues the
world's population of 6.5 billion today will become 13
billion by 2067); recent violations of human rights abuses
have gone mostly unpunished; most of these offenders
have enjoyed the fruits of their abuses with impunity; the
UN’s Security Council and the International Criminal Court
in the Hague are very slow, under- staffed, under-funded
and politically handicapped to the point of virtual
ineffectiveness; little is being done for vulenrable groups;
and, the victims of abuses of power, for the most part, do
not get the services they need and deserve in order to
recover.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
A Possible Solution
In my opinion at least four essential changes must
take place to prevent further abuses:
1st, armed political power must be defused, shared
and controlled within democratic processes; 2 nd, all
violations must be responded to by the community
of nations quickly, decisively with adequate severity
of punishment so that the basic principles of
deterrence will thwart those who might contemplate
future abuses of power; 3 rd, an international resolve
against this trend must be manifested in an existing
world organization, logically the United Nations; and
4th, vulnerable groups of pre-victims, must be
empowered (by providing them with financial,
political, educational, and cultural resources) so that
they are permanently removed from harm’s way.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
A Plan of Action
I propose that: 1. a deterrent mechanism be established by
the UN Security Council so that realistic, effective and
humane methods are created to bring offenders to justice; 2.
programs be initiated to target cultural supports that
encourage hero worship for those who would use armed force
against vulnerable ethnic groups who have been marked as
historical enemies and replaced with new heroes who work
toward and successfully achieve peaceful resolutions for
conflicts among old enemies; 3. democratic institutions be
encouraged and supported in all countries, especially among
those authoritative and totalitarian regimes from whence
most of the abuse of power emanates, and from where most
vulnerable groups are found, so that power becomes a shared
entity, monitored and controlled to serve the needs of all the
people it is entrusted to protect and is kept accountable
according to international human rights norms and standards;
and, 4. all living abuse of power victims be treated with state
of the art interventions to insure that their sufferings are
addressed such that victims are brought to a functional level
of recovery with dignity and humanness as an action
reflecting the joint resolve of the community of nations.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
“ We
owe respect to the
living; to the dead we owe
only truth.”
Voltaire
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
The Wall of Sorrow, San Salvador, El Salvador in memory
of the thousands of civilians killed in their civil war.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
References
Dussich, J. P. J. (1991) “Some theoretical and Pragmatic
Observations on the Abuse of Power,” Victims and Criminal
Justice: Particular Groups of Victims Part 2, G. Kaiser, H. Kury,
H.-J. Albrecht (eds.) Freiburg in Breisgau: Max-Planck-Institute
für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht volume 52.
Machiavelli, N. (1532) The Prince and other works. (1941)
Translated by A. H. Gilbert. Chicago: Packard and Company.
Rummel, R. J. (1997) Statistics of Democide, Charlotte,
Virginia, Center for National Security Law, School of Law,
University of Virginia, New Brunswick, N. J. Transaction
Publishers and Rutgers Univeristy.
United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for
Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, (1985) Adopted by the
General Assembly Resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985.
Voltaire, A. de (1840) Premiere Lettre sur Oedipe. Theatres
Francais Dramatiques de Voltaire.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
John P. J. Dussich
July , 2011
“The lust of power is the most flagrant of all the
passions.”
Tacitus
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Introduction
In 1532 Niccolo Machiavelli, a well
known Italian statesman and writer, in
trying to gain political favor with a corrupt
government so as to unite Italy, wrote
in his book The Prince, that “to get power
and remain in power a leader had to forget
ideals.” Although these suggestions did not
reflect his true philosophy and he wrote
outside his true convictions, it permanently
associated him with corruption and abuse.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
History
From antiquity to the present, history is
replete with dramatic and diverse
examples of individual victim abusers of
power. Some of the more infamous were:
Caligula, Nero, Attila the Hun, Genghis
Khan, Shaka the Zulu, Adolf Hilter, Josef
Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Slobodan
Milosović, and Saddam Hussein.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
History continued
However, some responses to abuses have
also motivated individual crusaders, who
became heroes on behalf of mass victim
suffering: Mahatma Gandhi, Harriet
Tubmen, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother
Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson
Mandela.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
For and Against Abuse
Two abusers
Two crusaders
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Examples of Abuse of Power victims:
1944 in Germany - Jews
1994 in Rwanda - Tutsis
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Some responses have been organized violent efforts
resulting in wars within and between nations.
Some have been peaceful efforts resulting in organizations
created to address major abuses: Amnesty International,
International Red Cross and Red Crescent, World Society of
Victimology, International Society for Social Defense.
The international instrument created in 1985 to alert the
world about the international resolve against abuse of
power was the United Nations Declaration of Basic
Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse
of Power.
The most recent organization created to deal directly and
legally with abusers of power is the International
Criminal Court located in the Hague, the Netherlands.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Basic Definitions
Abuse – The violation of a standard,
especially an agreed upon standard, where
persons, either “individually or collectively,
have suffered harm, including physical or
mental injury, emotional suffering, economic
loss or substantial impairment of fundamental
rights, through acts or omissions that do not
yet constitute violations of national criminal
laws but of internationally recognized norms
relating to human rights” (UN Declaration,
1985).
Power – “A recognized aggregation of forces
of significant magnitude that can exert a
major influence over people” (Dussich, 1991).
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Other Definitions
I define abuse of power as the
violation of an international standard
in the use of forces such that persons
are injured physically, mentally,
emotionally, economically, or in their
rights, as a direct and intentional
result of the misapplication of these
forces (Dussich, 1991).
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Causal Statement
Using the behavioral precepts of my Psycho/Social
Coping Theory, a causal statement for abuse of power
would be:
“Abuse of power results when a powerful social entity
(abuser) with extensive resources seeking specific
objectives, takes purposive actions (methods) to
obtain expected rewards, with little or no regard for
the injury caused to persons (victims), principles or
property. The expectations and methods used by the
abuser are shaped by learned, socio-cultural notions
that justify violations of international standards that
for them promise significant rewards with impunity.”
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Taxonomy
Based on this causal statement a
taxonomy is hereby presented based
on three of the main variables: an
abuser who misuses power; a method
which directs that power; and, a
victim who suffers from the abuse of
that power.
Using this taxonomy six infamous
examples of abuse of power are here
listed:
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Examples of Collective Abusers of
Power
Types of Abusers
Actual Abusers
Governements
Former South Africa
Corporations
Exxon's ship
"Valdez"
Methods used
Victims
Apartheid
Blacks and
Coloreds
Oil Pollution
Alaskan flora,
fauna, & environs
Rackteering
Businesses &
citizens
Crime
Organizations
Mafia
Religious
Organizations
Medieval Catholic
Church
Inquisition
“Heretics” - mostly
women
Prison guards
Torture & excessive
force
Inmates
Ku Klux Klan
Intimidation,
assault and Murder
Black Southern
Americans
Correctional
Institutions
Secret Societies
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Pragmatics
Measurement – the magnitude of the abuse of
power problem far exceeds the problem of
conventional crime. Yet, few comprehensive
studies have been conducted to measure its extent
and nature. The closest estimates indicate that the
number of abuse of power killings from the last
century were close to the entire world
population at the time of Jesus Christ just two
millennia ago (169 million compared to about
200 millon) (Rummel, 1997).
This means that more humans have been killed
because of the abuse of power in the past century
than in any of the other previous centuries.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
PRAGMATICS continued
In almost all abuse of power events great rewards
were reaped by the abusers; in almost all cases
abusers enjoyed complete impunity from their
mass victimizations; and, in some cases the
abusers were made heroes as a direct result of
their actions towards their victims.
Prevention – To effectively achieve any success
at positive social change we must go beyond
repeated descriptions of abuses of power (no
matter how compelling). We must move to
actions that can directly thwart those abuser
decisions which give rise to abuse of power
behaviors.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Theory
The three most often cited theoretical perspectives on
international conflict are: the functionalist, the conflict and
the social psychological.
The functionalist perspective focuses on the product of
world disorganization. Each nation has different self
interests; as these collide with one another, disputes arise
which result in war and produce mass victimization.
The conflict perspective focuses on economic and
political exploitation. The capitalist nations obtain labor and
raw materials from underdeveloped nations reaping vast
profits; and, in their wake, leave large numbers of victims.
The social psychological perspective considers both
individual and cultural issues. Thus,. instinctive as well as
learned aggressiveness produces a sense of ethnocentric
territoriality, which when threatened, produces armed
warfare and mass victimization.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
Conclusions
It is clear that our world mechanisms to prevent abuses of
power by rouge leaders is, for the most part, ineffective. If
the current trend continues, this next century will
experience an even greater number of abuses of power
and the victim numbers will exceed those of this century.
The facts are: the world population continues to grow at
an unprecedented rate (if current growth continues the
world's population of 6.5 billion today will become 13
billion by 2067); recent violations of human rights abuses
have gone mostly unpunished; most of these offenders
have enjoyed the fruits of their abuses with impunity; the
UN’s Security Council and the International Criminal Court
in the Hague are very slow, under- staffed, under-funded
and politically handicapped to the point of virtual
ineffectiveness; little is being done for vulenrable groups;
and, the victims of abuses of power, for the most part, do
not get the services they need and deserve in order to
recover.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
A Possible Solution
In my opinion at least four essential changes must
take place to prevent further abuses:
1st, armed political power must be defused, shared
and controlled within democratic processes; 2 nd, all
violations must be responded to by the community
of nations quickly, decisively with adequate severity
of punishment so that the basic principles of
deterrence will thwart those who might contemplate
future abuses of power; 3 rd, an international resolve
against this trend must be manifested in an existing
world organization, logically the United Nations; and
4th, vulnerable groups of pre-victims, must be
empowered (by providing them with financial,
political, educational, and cultural resources) so that
they are permanently removed from harm’s way.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
A Plan of Action
I propose that: 1. a deterrent mechanism be established by
the UN Security Council so that realistic, effective and
humane methods are created to bring offenders to justice; 2.
programs be initiated to target cultural supports that
encourage hero worship for those who would use armed force
against vulnerable ethnic groups who have been marked as
historical enemies and replaced with new heroes who work
toward and successfully achieve peaceful resolutions for
conflicts among old enemies; 3. democratic institutions be
encouraged and supported in all countries, especially among
those authoritative and totalitarian regimes from whence
most of the abuse of power emanates, and from where most
vulnerable groups are found, so that power becomes a shared
entity, monitored and controlled to serve the needs of all the
people it is entrusted to protect and is kept accountable
according to international human rights norms and standards;
and, 4. all living abuse of power victims be treated with state
of the art interventions to insure that their sufferings are
addressed such that victims are brought to a functional level
of recovery with dignity and humanness as an action
reflecting the joint resolve of the community of nations.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
“ We
owe respect to the
living; to the dead we owe
only truth.”
Voltaire
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
The Wall of Sorrow, San Salvador, El Salvador in memory
of the thousands of civilians killed in their civil war.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia
References
Dussich, J. P. J. (1991) “Some theoretical and Pragmatic
Observations on the Abuse of Power,” Victims and Criminal
Justice: Particular Groups of Victims Part 2, G. Kaiser, H. Kury,
H.-J. Albrecht (eds.) Freiburg in Breisgau: Max-Planck-Institute
für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht volume 52.
Machiavelli, N. (1532) The Prince and other works. (1941)
Translated by A. H. Gilbert. Chicago: Packard and Company.
Rummel, R. J. (1997) Statistics of Democide, Charlotte,
Virginia, Center for National Security Law, School of Law,
University of Virginia, New Brunswick, N. J. Transaction
Publishers and Rutgers Univeristy.
United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for
Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, (1985) Adopted by the
General Assembly Resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985.
Voltaire, A. de (1840) Premiere Lettre sur Oedipe. Theatres
Francais Dramatiques de Voltaire.
The 11th APGC on Victimology and
Victim Assistance Jakarta,
Indonesia