What do Perpetrators do when they speak? Methodological Contributions based on a Research about Repressors’ Public Statements (Argentina, 1976-2018)

Abstract

The analysis of perpetrators’ statements implies specific epistemological and theoretical challenges. This article aims to provide some conceptual and methodological keys based on a comprehensive review of an extensive research carried out collectively on the statements of Argentine perpetrators who spoke publicly between 1976 and 2018. We focus on three substantive aspects: first, how the figure of perpetrator is socially constructed and how it becomes an object of study in social sciences; second, representational, performative and “truthful” dimensionsof perpetrators words; and third, the temporal frames of these discourses in orderto pay attention to the ways in which they are socially produced, demanded and listened to in various contexts. The theoretical-methodological approach developed here seeks to avoid descriptive, essentialist and naturalizing perspectives, and try to address different aspects of this
phenomenon as sociologically relational, historically multitemporal and ethically dilemmatic.