Transitional justice and the social sciences: the uses and limitations of social science methodology in the investigation of atrocities

Law and Methods Seminar

Guest Speaker: Julieta Lemaitre Ripoll, Magistrate 

Criminal investigations have long relied on applied natural sciences (forensic medicine comes to mind.) Recently, human rights investigations as well as criminal investigations of war crimes and crimes against humanities have also relied on quantitative and qualitative research methods developed in the social sciences, (statistical probabilistic modeling, ethnography, semi-structured interviews and organizational analysis). This talk will explore the uses and limitations of these applications in the criminal investigations of Colombia’s latest transitional justice institution, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which is responsible for the investigation of macro-cases-cases bundling together crimes committed by hundreds of upper and middle level perpetrators, and thousands of victims.

Magistrate Lemaitre Ripoll will share her experience leading interdisciplinary teams of criminal analysts using these methods to indict perpetrators. A real life example of the interaction between law and methods.