Call for Papers
Denunciation—the act of accusing someone in front of state officials of divergent or delinquent behaviour—can have far-reaching effects on individual and societal levels. Throughout history and across regions, denunciation has caused the death of the denounced person and led to widespread distrust and fear that undermines social cohesion. In the history of mankind, we have a long tradition of denunciation, it was common in the Assyrian Empire, the same trend can be traced in the Roman Empire, ancient China, in the Middle Ages, as well as in modern times, for example in the Soviet Union, North Korea or in Putin’s Russia. German research focuses on the (lack of) accountability of denunciation during the Nazi regime (Halbrainer/Kuretsidis-Haider 2007) or the “dimensions of betrayal” during the GDR system (Krätzner-Ebert 2023).