Sexual violence in armed conflicts: research progress and remaining gaps

Abstract

Research on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) has grown rapidly over the last decade. This article consolidates existing social science research on CSRV according to two lines of inquiry: its causes and its consequences. Overall, research has considerably advanced our knowledge of the causes of CRSV, particularly in four aspects: purpose, context, individual motives and intra-group dynamics. However, there is a need to better understand the societal consequences of CRSV, in particular how it affects relations in families, and within and between communities. Overall there remains a shortage of empirical, in particular mixed-method, designs to produce research which is relevant for policymakers and practitioners.

Keywords:

• Sexual violence
• armed conflict
• causes
• consequences

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Julia Strasheim, Alexander De Juan, Melissa Nelson, Matthias Basedau, Christian von Soest, two anonymous reviewers and the editorial team for invaluable comments. Furthermore, I am grateful to Monika Onken for her research assistance. Research for this article was supported by the German Research Council and the GIGA Institute Hamburg.

Notes

1. Brownmiller, Against Our Will; Seifert, “Second Front.”

2. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence”; Wood, “Variation in Sexual Violence.”

3. Hagen and Yohani, “Nature and Psychosocial Consequences.”

4. Cohen and Wood, “Is Sexual Violence during War Exceptional?”.

5. Wood, “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,” 458.

6. International Criminal Court, cited in ibid., 459.

7. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?; Kirby, “How Is Rape a Weapon”; Meger, “Fetishization of Sexual Violence.”

8. Brownmiller, Against Our Will.

9. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence”; Wood, “Variation in Sexual Violence.”

10. Hagen and Yohani, “Nature and Psychosocial Consequences”; Cohen and Wood, “Is Sexual Violence during War Exceptional?”.

11. True, Political Economy of Violence.

12. Chowdhury and Lanier, “Rape and HIV.”

13. Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 38.

14. Carpenter, “Recognizing Gender-Based Violence”; Cohen, “Female Combatants.”

15. Human Security Report Project, Human Security Report 2012.

16. Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Peru,” 448.

17. Thomas and Regan, “Rape in War.”

18. Elbert et al., Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, 43.

19. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?

20. Quillard, “All Those Who Have Been Raped.”

21. Meger, “Fetishization of Sexual Violence.”

22. Kirby, “Security Fetish”; Kirby, “Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict.”

23. Meger, “Fetishization of Sexual Violence”; Cockburn, “Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict”; Brownmiller, Against Our Will; Gottschall, “Explaining Wartime Rape”; Buss, “Rethinking ‘Rape as a Weapon of War’”; Henry, “Theorizing Wartime Rape”; Eriksson Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?

24. Cockburn, “Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict.”

25. Brownmiller, Against Our Will.

26. Meger, “Rape of the Congo”; Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence”; Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence”; Trenholm, Olsson, and Ahlberg, “Battles on Women’s Bodies.”

27. Brownmiller, Against Our Will.

28. Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence.”

29. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War.”

30. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”; Bastick, Grimm, and Kunz, Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.

31. Elbert et al., Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.

32. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”; Meger, “Fetishization of Sexual Violence”; Kirby, “How Is Rape a Weapon”.

33. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence”; Butler and Jones, “Establishing a Baseline.”

34. Davies and True, “Reframing Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.”

35. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence”; Green, “Uncovering Collective Rape.”

36. Bidwell, Modern Warfare, 20.

37. Seifert, “Second Front”; Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”

38. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”

39. True, Political Economy of Violence, 122.

40. Meger, “Rape of the Congo.”

41. Kelly, Rape in War, 8.

42. Elbert, Weierstall, and Schauer, “Fascination Violence.”

43. Elbert et al., Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, 40.

44. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Bastick, Grimm, and Kunz, Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict; Wood, “Variation in Sexual Violence during War.”

45. Cohen, “Female Combatants.”

46. Elbert et al., Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, 46–7.

47. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”; Green, “Uncovering Collective Rape”; Kelly, Rape in War.

48. Wood, “Variation in Sexual Violence”; Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence”; Meger, “Rape of the Congo”; Nordås and Rustad, “Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.”

49. Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Peru.”

50. Hagen and Yohani, “Nature and Psychosocial Consequences”; Kelly et al., “Hope for the Future Again”; Bastick, Grimm, and Kunz, Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.

51. Seifert, “War and Rape: A Preliminary Analysis,” 65; MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights.”

52. Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor,” 386.

53. Ohambe et al., Women’s Bodies as a Battleground, 43.

54. Kelly et al., “Experiences of Female Survivors of Sexual Violence.”

55. Sideris, “War, Gender and Culture.”

56. Mukamana and Brysiewicz, “Lived Experience of Genocide,” 382.

57. Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor.”

58. Utas, “Sexual Abuse Survivors.”

59. Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor.”

60. Trenholm, Olsson, and Ahlberg, “Battles on Women’s Bodies,” 143.

61. Kelly et al., “Hope for the Future Again,” 26.

62. Hagen and Yohani, “Nature and Psychosocial Consequences”; Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor.”

63. Utas, “Sexual Abuse Survivors”; Stark, “Cleansing the Wounds of War.”

64. Theidon, “Gender in Transition.”

65. Ibid., 460.

66. Butler, Gluch, and Mitchell, “Security Forces and Sexual Violence.”

67. Peterman, Palermo, and Bredenkamp, “Estimates and Determinants of Sexual Violence”; Human Security Report Project, Human Security Report 2012; Meger, “Fetishization of Sexual Violence.”

68. Kelly et al., “Hope for the Future Again,” 29.

69. Kelly et al., “Hope for the Future Again.”

70. Bowles, “Being Human.”

71. Annan et al., “Civil War, Reintegration, and Gender.”

72. Kuwert et al., “Long-Term Effects.”

73. Mukamana and Brysiewicz, “Lived Experience of Genocide.”

74. Quoted in ibid., 382.

75. Bass et al., “Controlled Trial of Psychotherapy.”

76. For instance, Denov, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” relies on three interviews. Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor,” presents narratives from five CRSV survivors. Trenholm, “Battles on Women's Bodies,” rely on interviews with 10 traditional leaders, and Mukamana and Brysiewicz, “The Lived Experience,” study on the consequences of CRSV relies on seven interviews.

77. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”

78. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War.”

79. Ibid.; Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence”; Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence”; Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”; Elbert et al., Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.

80. Eriksson Baaz and Stern, “Why Do Soldiers Rape?”; Eriksson Baaz and Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War?; Meger, “Rape of the Congo”; Henry, “Theorizing Wartime Rape”; Davies and True, “Reframing Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence”; Kirby, “How Is Rape a Weapon of War?”.

81. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War”; Leiby, “Wartime Sexual Violence”; Green, “Uncovering Collective Rape”; Theidon, “Gender in Transition”; Cohen and Nordås, “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.”

82. Davies and True, “Reframing Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence”; Butler and Jones, “Establishing a Baseline.”

83. Hagen and Yohani, “Nature and Psychosocial Consequences.”

84. Mukamana and Brysiewicz, “Lived Experience of Genocide.”

85. Davies and True, “Reframing Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.”

86. Utas, “Sexual Abuse Survivors.”

87. Mukamana and Brysiewicz, “Lived Experience of Genocide.”

88. Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence”; Wood, “Variation in Sexual Violence during War”; Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War.”

89. Brownmiller, Against Our Will.

90. Elbert et al., Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.