While the historical context and ideological underpinnings of the KR regime provide reasons for why the Cambodian genocide occurred , more explanations must be had for the widespread violence that was carried out by Cambodians against Cambodians . Anthropologist Alexander Hinton 's research project to interview perpetrators of violence during the KR regime sheds some light on the question of collective violence . Hinton 's analysis of top-down initiatives shows that perpetrators in the KR were motivated to kill because KR leaders were effectively able to " localize their ideologies " to appeal to their followers . Specifically , Hinton spoke to two ideological palimpsests that the KR used . First , the KR tapped on the Khmer notion of disproportionate revenge to motivate a resonant equivalent — class rage against previous oppressors . Hinton uses the example of revenge in the Cambodian context to illustrate how closely violence can be tied to and explained by the Buddhist notion of karma , which dictates that there is a cycle of cause and effect in which one 's past actions will affect one 's future life . Next , KR leadership built on local notions of power and patronage vis-à-vis Wolters ’ mandala polity to establish their authority as a potent centre . In so doing , the KR escalated the suspicion and instability inherent within such patronage networks , setting the stage for distrust and competition on which political purges were based
Cambodian genocide
Cambodian genocide
Democratic Kampuchea