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62 J. Conflict Resol. 3 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr62 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Journal of Conflict Resolution 2018, Vol. 62(l) 3-28 Tn The Author(s) 2016 In the Shadow of the Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav International Crim inal DOI: 10. 177/0022002716639101 journals.sagepub.com/home/cr Court: Does the ICC OSAGE Deter Human Rights Violations? Benjamin J. Appel' Abstract The International Criminal Court (ICC) is responsible for prosecuting crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Despite the potential for the ICC to deter human rights abuses, scholars and policy makers are divided on the effectiveness of it. This debate, however, is plagued by some important theo- retical and empirical limitations. I address the problems in the literature and evaluate whether the ICC can prevent human rights abuses. I argue that the ICC can deter governments from committing human rights violations by imposing a variety of costs on them throughout their investigations that decrease their expected payoffs for engaging in human rights abuses. Across a variety of sta- tistical estimators that account for standard threats to inference and several anecdotes, I find strong support for my theoretical expectations; leaders from states that have ratified the Rome Statute commit lower levels of human rights abuses than nonratifier leaders. Keywords international law, human rights, international institutions, international treaties 'Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA Corresponding Author: Benjamin J. Appel, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Email: benjaminjappel@gmail.com