Lee Ann Fujii  wrote about genocide in Rwanda and lynchings in the US.  She wrote that   lynchings and other violent acts are choreographed  for maximum effect. She acted in plays, and studied international relations. Her parents met in a Japanese internment camp. "Lee Ann’s innovative study of violence examined the complex reasons behind individual behavior, allowing that complex individuals were full of contradictions and dilemmas. She believed that the emotions of research subjects were important, and that one could get deeper and more meaningful data by seeing people not just as research participants, but as human beings. In her book Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda, she posed the question that drove her research: “How do ordinary people come to commit mass violence against their own neighbors, friends, and family?”" -from Reed Alumni Magazine. 

I remember a German movie where a highschool student discovered that some Jewish families had been turned in to the Nazi government, so their neighbors could get their land and homes. Similar incidents occurred in afghanistan and iraq where people were falsely accused of opposing the US so the accusers could get rewards in addition to their land and homes.