Alette Smeulers

Alette Smeulers is a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology of International Crimes at the Faculty of Law, University of Groningen. Her research spans war crimes, genocide, terrorism, and authoritarianism, focusing on perpetrator psychology and international criminal justice systems. She obtained her PhD in 2003 from Maastricht University and previously established the International Crimes and Criminology master’s program at VU Amsterdam (2006–2011), now renamed.

Her work emphasizes understanding the normalcy behind mass atrocities and designing prevention strategies. She co-hosts the podcast Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal?, exploring perpetrator profiles, and authored the 2024 Routledge book Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities. Key research areas include:

• Psychological and social drivers of war criminals
• ICTY/ICTR sentencing patterns
• Authoritarian leadership and human rights
• Gender roles in atrocity crimes

Smeulers’ publications since 2003 address legal frameworks, control theory, and Milgram’s obedience experiments, with recent focus on drone warfare’s psychological impacts. She collaborates with institutions like Oxford University Press and serves on editorial boards including the Journal of Perpetrator Research.

Contact: a.l.smeulers@rug.nl