Determinants of genocide from 1980 to 1987 : a global empirical analysis / by Tamara J. Franks.

This study represents one of the first statistical attempts to identify factors that contribute to the occurrence of genocide. Two distinct indicators of genocide are employed as the dependent variable; the independent variables include international and civil war experience, economic development, level of democracy, number of politicized communal groups, size of population, and proportion of population of politicized communal groups. Ordinary Least Squares regression and Logit are performed on the pooled cross-sectional time series data covering 123 countries over an eight year period. Strong support is provided for the hypothesized relationships between genocide and both international war experience and economic development while moderate support is provided for civil war experience and the proportion of the population of politicized communal groups.