What drives people like Vladimir Putin, Anders Breivik and Nazi doctor Josef Mengele to get involved in mass atrocities? Who were the people behind 9/11 and why did they commit such crimes? And what about the attacks in London, Madrid, Zaventem and Paris? Why did so many people follow a man like Adolf Hitler? Was Hannah Arendt right with her thesis on the banality of evil when describing Adolf Eichmann? Who was Prigozjin? What happened in Rwanda in 1994 and in Cambodia in the seventies under the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot? Why do dictatorial regimes resort to torture and why is there so much sexual violence during periods of war? How can we explain the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Alette Smeulers has studied perpetrators of mass atrocities for over 30 years and is the author of Perpetrators of mass atrocities – terribly and terrifyingly normal? (Routledge 2024). She wants to share this knowledge as she believes that understanding the true nature and causes of these crimes and understand who the perpetrators are and why they commit these crimes, we are in a much better position to prevent such crimes.

Alette has published extensively in international academic journals but she has also given interviews on television (Haagens!), the radio such as Eenvandaag, magazines such as De Groene Amsterdammer; Wordt Vervolgd and Psychologie Magazine and  and in newspapers such as Volkskrant and Trouw. She regularly gives public lectures such as recently in Paradiso, Amsterdam in the series Science & Cocktails; the Asser Institute, the Police Academy (min 53-83) and at Studium Generale in which she tackles many of the above questions. Together with Nicola Quaedvlieg she made a podcast series on perpetrators of mass atrocities called Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal? It can be found on all major podcast platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcast.