Carter Stanley | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Carter Stanley
Title: Violent Legacies: Transitional Justice and Postwar Violence in Guatemala
Majors: History; Political Science
Advisors: Ibra Sene; Matthew Krain

This thesis investigates the varying impacts of transitional justice mechanisms on levels of lethal criminal violence following the Guatemalan Civil War. Although many scholars have researched the Guatemalan Civil War and its impacts on communities throughout Guatemala, the relationship between wartime political violence, transitional justice, and postwar violence remains largely understudied. The violent legacy of the Guatemalan Civil War and the efficacy of transitional justice processes in moderating postwar violence have critical implications for understanding how different justice mechanisms have influenced and can continue to impact levels of violence in postwar societies. This study employs an interdisciplinary approach to process-tracing analysis, drawing from literature from both political scientists and historians, as well as primary source accounts from Guatemalan civilians who witnessed violence during the civil war. This thesis makes several important arguments: that robust truth and reconciliation commissions can decrease criminal violence by demonstrating that the state values accountability, thus deterring violence; that amnesties did not decrease future homicides in Guatemala; and that prosecution for wartime crimes cannot be proven to reduce criminal violence in a politicized environment. However, the potential of these processes to grant justice to victims and establish historical truth should not be understated. This research contributes to an understanding of peace processes necessary to effectively fulfill the responsibility of post-conflict societies to guarantee justice through the protection of human rights.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.