The logic of sexual violence by state security forces in civil wars

Abstract

Wartime sexual violence exhibits significant variation both across and within civil conflicts. When explaining this variation, existing scholarly work primarily focuses on rebel groups and overlooks state actors engaged in sexualized civilian victimization. This paper extends the literature by concentrating on states as perpetrators of wartime sexual violence, linking the variation in state-perpetrated sexual violence to battlefield outcomes. It argues that when states suffer from battlefield losses, sexual violence by state security forces is likely to become more prevalent due to changes in motivations at both the command level and the rank-and-file level. Moreover, it suggests that the effect of battle losses on state-perpetrated sexual violence is greater if the states are particularly strong in terms of their military capabilities. Time-series cross-sectional analyses of all armed conflicts between the years 1989 and 2020 provide support for these theoretical expectations, indicating that the effect of battle losses on sexual violence is conditional on states’ military strength. The findings have important implications for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict zones.