Use Of Sexual Violence Research Articles

Silent shadows in the rebirth of Czech nation: Unveiling the role of rape and sexual violence in the ethnic cleansing of post‐WWII Czech lands

AbstractThe article explores the harrowing use of sexual violence as a tool in the ethnic cleansing of Germans in post‐World War II Czechoslovakia. By examining the grim realities of internment camps, prisons, and border regions, it reveals a disturbing pattern of abuse aimed primarily at German women by Czech men. This violence was not isolated but integral to the broader project of national cleansing, laying bare the patriarchal foundations of Czechoslovak society. State policies, including the differential treatment of mixed marriages, reinforced a male‐dominated ethos. By stripping Germans of their citizenship and legal protections, Czech authorities fostered a climate of impunity, allowing a wave of sexual violence to persist through the ‘German transfers’. The article sheds light on this dark chapter, exposing how rape was used to reaffirm Czech men's dominance in the nation's postwar rebirth.

“Your Womb is Our Enemy!”

War crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide were committed in the war in Tigray. This article focuses on the use of sexual violence as an instrument of war. It narrates the scale, nature, and intentions of the sexual violence perpetrated on Tigrayan women, girls, men and boys. It showcases the extreme cruelty, dehumanization and intent to sterilize and inflict maximum damage from stories of victims and witnesses. It compares them with the rape crimes committed in other cases and concludes the nature of the crime was genocidal.

Sexual Violence and the Bulgarian Occupier in Yugoslavia during the Second World War


 Sexual violence in a war varies depending on the scale, form and kind of the conflict. The Bulgarian occupation of Serbian and Yugoslav territories in the First and Second World Wars had a lot of similarities both in the form and character of the occupation system, but also in how sexual violence was executed and utilised. During the Second World War, Bulgarian forces committed fewer crimes of this nature than during the First World War. Still, the use of violence and terror in response to resistance remained the same and extremely brutal against the civilians. Rape was even officially proclaimed as one of the ways of reprisal against the population in regions where rebels were active. At the same time, arbitrary attacks against civilians were punished to the greatest extent. During the so-called “punitive expeditions”, the number of rapes committed and their cruelty were highly striking. Numerous cases testify that some women were victims of violence repeatedly. The perpetrators considered neither their age nor their social and health status. Moreover, they were frequently exposed to additional humiliation, so it often happened that the rape occurred in front of family members and their closest neighbours or that the raped women were pregnant. The perpetrators of the rape were both soldiers and military officers. Some of them were repeatedly recorded in the post-war testimonies and memories of the victims as multiple culprits of this violence. The post-war recording of committed crimes of rape, which was carried out for a peace conference, although insufficiently reliable, provides illustrative data on the use of sexual violence in the war. It also testifies to the politicisation and instrumentalisation of these crimes both in war and in peace. 

Do sacred incompatibilities explain the use of genocidal sexual violence?

This paper seeks to offer a solution to a paradox existing in the literature regarding the genocidal intent of the use of sexual violence in armed conflicts: indeed, according to data highlighted by Cohen (2013), genocidal intent does not hold as a cause of the use of sexual violence in armed conflicts at a macro level. However, since there have been numerous conflicts where the use of sexual violence was genocidal in its intent, then there must be a more precise explanation that could explain this phenomenon. To do so, this paper focuses on an in-depth case study of ISIS’s targeting of Yazidi women using theory building process tracing methods. I propose the argument that sacred incompatibilities, a concept derived from Hassner (2003) and Svensson (2007) offers a plausible cause of the use of genocidal sexual violence. The case study -a most likely case- supports the argument, though the theory should be tested in other case studies. The content of this paper, particularly the analysis, can be quite emotionally challenging, and it may trigger some readers; for those I would recommend skipping the analysis.

Cultural Distance and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Abstract This article examines the relationship between ethnic-based gender norms and conflict-related sexual violence. We generate a novel dyadic data set that contains information on the ethnic identity of all the actors involved in ethnic civil conflicts around the world between 1989 and 2019 and their use of sexual violence. We exploit ethnographic information to construct a new male dominance index at the ethnicity level that captures deep-rooted gender norms. First, we find that male-dominant armed actors are more likely to be perpetrators of sexual violence. Second, we consider the cultural distance in gender norms between the combatants and show that sexual violence is driven by a specific clash of conceptions on the appropriate role of men and women in society: sexual violence increases when the perpetrator is more male dominant than the victim. Additional analyses suggest that gender norms influence both the strategic use of sexual violence for military purposes and the expressive use of sexual violence for private motivations. These patterns are specific to sexual violence and do not explain general violence in a conflict. Differences in other cultural dimensions unrelated to gender are not associated with conflict-related sexual violence.

Peacekeeping Deployments, Intragroup Cohesion, and the Use of Sexual Violence by Armed Non-State Groups

ABSTRACT How do United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions influence the use of conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) by armed non-state actors? This study argues efficacy is influenced by conditions that precede deployment and the composition of UN forces. Poor intragroup cohesion within rebel ranks incentivizes CRSV, putting peacekeepers in a precarious position upon deployment. UN police improve law enforcement capabilities, build relationships with local communities, and promote information diffusion mechanisms. As a result, UN police are associated with a decrease in CRSV, even in the most difficult environments.

Dark Tetrad, Acceptance of Sexual Violence, and Sexism

Abstract. The Dark Tetrad is a cluster of four “dark” personality traits which are socially aversive, with distinct conceptual roots, but which are intercorrelated: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism. Narcissism is associated with inflated self-esteem and feelings of grandiosity; psychopathy involves reduced empathy and a lack of remorse or guilt; Machiavellianism is characterized by a tendency for manipulation for own personal benefit; sadism involves feelings of pleasure with the pain or suffering of others. Sexism is the group of beliefs linked with the perceived superiority of men over women. Previous studies have found relationships between the Dark Tetrad and the tolerance of the use of sexual violence and between the former and sexism. Furthermore, sexism has been linked with the acceptance of sexual violence. This study aims to revise the literature exploring the link between each of the components of the Dark Tetrad and the legitimation of the use of sexual violence; it also aims to present the associations that have been found between the aforementioned variables and sexism and related concepts, in multiple studies. Based on the previous literature, suggestions for aims of future research in this field (i.e., Dark Tetrad, sexual violence, sexism) are made, more specifically exploring the relative effect of each of the components of the Dark Tetrad in the explanation of the legitimation of sexual violence, as well as exploring a possible, at least partial, mediation of sexism in the link between each of the “dark” traits and the acceptance of sexual violence.

Conflict-related sexual violence as a threat to peace and security of the world

The aim of the article is to conduct a review of the main trends in the impact of sexual violence in the course of armed conflict on the growing threat to world peace and security. The subject of the study is conflict-related sexual violence. The research methodology includes the following methods of scientific knowledge: dialectical, logical, normative and dogmatic, monographic, system and structural, summarization. Research results. The concept of sexual violence related to the conflict, provided in international legal acts, is considered, its features and characteristics are studied. The goals of the use of sexual violence during armed or military conflict are established. Practical meaning. It is emphasized that every military conflict is accompanied by sexual violence, despite the adopted international agreements, conventions and resolutions that prohibit such actions. Value / originality. It is noted that conflict-related sexual violence remains a systematic, widespread, pervasive and universal phenomenon that poses a direct threat to world peace and human security.

Femvertising Discourse in The Body Shop Indonesia Campaign . Discourse Analysis Study of The Body Shop Indonesia Campaign Stop Sexual Violence #TBSFightForSisterhood

This study aims to describe femvertising in The Body Shop Indonesia Stop Sexual Violence #TBSFightForSisterhood Campaign. This research method uses qualitative, data collection is carried out by observation, namely observing uploads on Instagram @thebodyshopindo.impact. The data analysis technique uses a critical discourse analysis model of Norman Fairclough. The results of this study indicate that, most of the uploads in femvertising in The Body Shop Indonesia Campaign entitled Stop Sexual Violence use words that form public awareness of the urgency of sexual violence cases, describe women's dominance as objects of sexual violence, campaigns that are wrapped with sexual violence education so that they reap the benefits of sexual violence. public response, and gain public attention for the achievement of the campaign's objectives.

A Historical Analysis of the Impact of Hegemonic Masculinities on Sexual Assault in the Lives of Ethnic Minority Women: Informing Nursing Interventions and Health Policy.

Women's experiences of sexual assault are rooted in and informed by a history that nurses need to understand in order to provide meaningful and effective care. In this article, we present a comprehensive literature review guided by intersectionality theory to deepen our understanding of the historical role that hegemonic masculinity plays in shaping ethnic minority women's experiences of sexual assault. Final sources included were analyzed using thematic analysis. On the basis of our analyses, we identified 4 themes: social order hierarchies, "othering" dynamics, economic labor divisions, and negative media/mass communication depiction. Our findings contribute to our understanding of these important histories that speak to the trauma of sexual violence inflicted upon the bodies of ethnic minority women, which we can incorporate into nursing education curricula. Incorporating this knowledge would equip nurses and allied health professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills that would enable them to help patients navigate multiple systems of oppression as they engage in help seeking following a sexual assault experience. This knowledge also acknowledges rather than dismisses the historically acceptable use of sexual violence against ethnic minority women. In addition, acknowledging these histories enables us to move forward as a society in engaging in an urgently needed cultural shift to address the hegemonic masculinities that perpetuate violence against women in the United States.

Intersections of Childhood Victimization Experiences, Gender, and Dominance: The Makings for Sexual Coercion Transnationally?

Although the use of sexual violence has been widely researched, data on sexual offending tend to be limited. Since adverse childhood experiences have been found to be correlated with being a victim of sexually coercive behavior, more research is needed to understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the perpetration of sexually coercive behaviors. Yet, there is little published research explaining such risk factors for sexually coercive behaviors and even less transnationally. This study seeks to expand the current literature by exploring the impact of violence and dominance-based beliefs on sexually coercive behaviors. Using data from the International Dating Violence Survey, the results from multilevel modeling regression analysis indicate that beliefs in relational dominance moderate the relationship between violent childhood experiences and sexually coercive behaviors. More importantly, despite theoretical premises that men engage in more sexually coercive behaviors, the results found that sexually coercive behaviors are more prevalent among those who hold dominance-based belief systems over intimate partners regardless of gender. Implications of these findings are discussed.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO ARMED CONFLICT: TESTING THE AU AND EU PROTOCOLS

The purpose of this article is to examine measures for curbing the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Specifically, the article tests protocols provided by the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) in order to highlight the attendant key critiques and challenges. It highlights the prospects that protocols provided for by the AU and EU could mitigate and ameliorate sexual violence in armed conflict (SVAC) in contexts such as that of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Therefore, the article also examines strengths and weaknesses of the AU and EU protocols for SVAC. The article finds that there are more complex and area-specific reasons why sexual violence in armed conflict takes place in Africa, especially in the DRC. Furthermore, the article notes the notion that sexual violence as a weapon is recognized to be “cheaper than the use of bullets” as well as the societal preoccupation with biosocial and patriarchal military theory. This article finds that such acts or beliefs, which are morally unacceptable, are prevalent causes of SVAC in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The article concludes that protocols provided for by the AU and EU fall-short of what is required in the DRC because this country’s contexts entail more of redress than prevention. Indeed, prevention cannot be underrated, but there are already scars and victims of SVAC that require urgent intervention to build for a better society. The article recommends that a just and fair framework be established to address the problems that confront victims of SVAC as well as to hold governments and officials to account. Keywords: Armed conflict, Gender-based Violence, Institutional Frameworks, Security

Reckoning with Highland Rape: Sexuality, Violence, and Power on the Runway

Alexander McQueen’s Fall 1995 show Highland Rape was a turning point in his career. The title of the show, in conjunction with the models’ appearance on the runway in ripped, revealing clothes, was undeniably provocative, and the controversy raised his profile considerably. Several reviewers criticized the show, labeling it “misogynistic.” McQueen consistently objected to this characterization, saying that the phrase “Highland Rape” referred to England’s historical “assaults” upon his ancestral homeland of Scotland and drew from witnessing the abuse that his sister suffered at the hands of her ex-husband. Because of this, some fashion scholars have dismissed the idea of McQueen’s misogyny as merely a failure to fully understand his oeuvre and his biography. While critiquing McQueen’s use of sexual violence, it is necessary to find a middle ground between the idea that either McQueen’s work is too complex and authentic to be criticized or that his sometimes-troubling approach to race and gender politics should condemn him to wholesale dismissal. However, examining Highland Rape through its authorial intent and a close reading of the garments themselves, while considering the power dynamics between model and designer, reveals a performance that reinforces the glamorization of rape and the manipulation of women’s bodies.

The Impact of Avoidant/Disengagement Coping and Social Support on the Mental Health of Adolescent Victims of Sexual Violence in Eastern Congo.

IntroductionEastern Congo has been affected by armed conflict for decades while the rampant use of sexual violence has left many women and girls dealing with a wide range of consequences of sexual violence. For adolescent victims the psychosocial impact of sexual violence is devastating. However, the role of avoidant/disengagement coping and family support on the mental health impact of sexual violence remains unclear.MethodsThe study design was a cross-sectional, population-based survey in which 1,305 school-going adolescent girls aged 11 to 23 participated. Mental health symptoms (IES-R and HSCL-37A), family support (MSPSS), avoidant/disengagement (Kidcope), war-related traumatic events (ACEES), experiences of sexual violence, daily stressors, and stigmatization (ACEDSS) were administered through self-report measures. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was carried out with mental health outcomes as dependent variables for different types of sexual violence. Finally, several ANCOVA models were defined to explore possible interaction effects of avoidant/disengagement coping and family support with stigmatization, daily stressors and war-related traumatic exposure.ResultsFor girls who did not report sexual violence, avoidant/disengagement coping has a direct negative effect on all psychological symptoms. For victims of sexual violence, when high levels of stigma were reported, avoidant/disengagement coping possibly served as a protective factor, as shown by the interaction effect between avoidance/disengagement coping and stigmatization on mental health outcomes. In victims of sexual violence however, high levels of daily stressors combined with avoidant/disengagement strategies showed a strong increase in posttraumatic stress symptoms. Interestingly, the mental health impact of sexual violence was not mitigated by support by family members. For girls who reported a nonconsensual sexual experience without labelling it as rape and at the same time testified to have a lot of family support, there was a positive association between stressors (daily stressors, stigma, and war-related trauma) and posttraumatic stress symptoms.ConclusionsThese results of this study underwrite to the importance of looking beyond the straightforward negative impact of avoidant/disengagement coping strategies on mental health in adolescent victims of sexual violence. While avoidant/disengagement coping can have a negative impact on psychosocial well-being on adolescent victims of sexual violence, in case of high levels of stigmatization it can as well protect them from posttraumatic stress or anxiety. Furthermore these findings speak to the importance of exploring the diversified relationship between risk and protective factors, such as avoidant/disengagement coping strategies and family support, that shape the mental health impact of sexual violence in adolescent victims.

Sexual violence in the Kosovo conflict: a lesson for Myanmar and other ethnic cleansing campaigns

In this article, we analyze the patterns of sexual violence against Albanian women during the Kosovo conflict (1998–1999) as a weapon of the Milosevic regime’s campaign of ethnic cleansing. We used a broad combination of sources: a secondary literature of history and social science, human rights reports, trial records, our oral history of survivors, interviews with advocates and psychologists handling hundreds of survivors, and a subset of survey data of reported discrete incidents of sexual violence. Our focus on Kosovo as a single-case study rich in data allowed us to discern patterns that offer important insights for understanding how women’s bodies come to be sites of militarized violence in the context of ethnic exclusion and destruction. This carries policy implications for preventing the use of sexual violence in other conflicts, or, in the case of Myanmar military’s sexual violence against Rohingya women, to offer a roadmap for the prosecution of perpetrators.

“You Feel Like You Belong Nowhere”: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Social Identity in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Globally, the systematic use of sexual violence in modern warfare has resulted in the birth of thousands of children. Research has begun to focus on this often invisible group and the obstacles they face, including stigma, discrimination and exclusion based on their birth origins. Although sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide has been documented on a massive scale, little research has focused on the relational dynamics between mothers who experienced genocide rape and the children they bore. This paper explores the post-genocide realities of these two under-explored populations, revealing two key tensions in relation to identity-building and belonging. Drawing upon in-depth interviews conducted with 44 mothers and 60 youth, we examine how youth participants’ quest for the truth in forming their own identities is often in conflict with mothers’ efforts to disassociate their identities from sexual violence and genocide. Furthermore, both mothers’ and children’s identities remain ‘caught’ in the rigid ethnic politics of the genocide at the national level. Ultimately, this article highlights that the distinction between the self and the larger politics of post-genocide Rwanda are not easily disentangled, as challenges faced by these families exist at the nexus of the personal and the national, the individual and structural.

When Women Become the War Zone: the Use of Sexual Violence in Myanmar’s Military Operations

This article draws together existing data and research on the organisation and structure of the Myanmar military (‘Tatmadaw’) and its use of sexual violence in military operations. It argues that from this data, a pattern emerges of rape-permissive military doctrines being employed by the same type of Tatmadaw units across multiple military operations, over many decades and sites. Unpacking each aspect of this posited pattern reveals an endemic rape culture within the Myanmar military that seems to be repeatedly utilised for strategic purposes in counter-insurgency operations. Investigating the potential origins of this rape-permissive culture, the article argues that Tatmadaw recruiting, training and deployment processes cultivate sexual violence as a permissible form of violence that is then tolerated by the Tatmadaw high command, most likely due to its efficacy in achieving its military strategies.

‘The Queen of Decadence': Rachilde and Sado-Masochistic Feminism

In 1884, the novel Monsieur Venus took the French literary world by storm, and inaugurated its controversial female author, Rachilde, the ‘queen of decadence.’ Many critics did not believe that a young, aristocratic woman could possibly have devised such a salacious story. A literary press which specialized in erotica first published the book, but it was banned regardless, and Rachilde was even condemned to prison for pornographic writing. Subsequent editions therefore required fake male co-authors and introductions by famous male writers that consigned the novel not literature at all, but the case study of a hysterical woman. Rachilde also publicly denounced the feminism of her moment, a proclamation that affected the twentieth-century reception of her writing. Yet, following new French and English editions published in 2004, Monsieur Venus has been hailed a queer forerunner in contemporary academic circles, even while questions about Rachilde’s feminist affiliations persist. This paper goes beyond the biographical details that have dominated conversation about Rachilde’s writing to closely interrogate the use of sexual violence in Monsieur Venus, and in her much lesser-known novel, La Marquise de Sade (1887). Based on the definition of sadomasochism Gilles Deleuze outlines in his book, Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty (1991), the respective use of masochism in Monsieur Venus and of sadism in La Marquise de Sade places its female characters in the unlikely positions of masochist and sadist to offer a provocative critique of the decadent moment, and its representations of sexuality, the body, and even nationalism.

Gendering Pacification: Policing Women at Anti-fracking Protests

This article seeks to consider the policing of anti-fracking protests at Barton Moss, Salford, from November 2013 to April 2014. We argue that women at Barton Moss were considered by the police to be transgressing the socio-geographical boundaries that establish the dominant cultural and social order, and were thus responded to as disruptive and disorderly subjects. The article draws upon recent work on pacification, which views police power as having both destructive and productive dimensions, to consider the impact of police violence on women involved in protest. We seek to explore the ways in which this violence impacts not only on those involved in protest but also those on the peripheries. The article suggests that the threat and use of sexual violence by police towards women aims to enforce compliance within the protest movement and to send a message, specifically to those on the fringes of the movement, that protest is illegitimate and inherently dangerous. As such, sexual violence forms part of the social production and construction of gender and is instrumental in the making and remaking of subjectivities. The case study suggests that police brutality towards women at Barton Moss, therefore, operated as a disciplinary function to regulate acceptable forms of protest and acceptable forms of femininity.

Hollow Promises in the Face of Slaughter: The Yazidi Genocide and the Path Toward Justice

This paper gives a background on genocide as a concept, breaks down the Genocide Convention and how the treaty came into existence, provides insight into the duality of the definition of genocide, as both a legal and political concept, gives understanding as to how this duality has played out in the case of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and compares those cases to the case of the Yazidis in Iraq. Finally, it focuses on both the murder and actual killing of the Yazidis and also the use of sexual violence against the Yazidi women and girls as a tactic of war and delves into why the enslavement of women and girls is a form of genocide. It does this in part by using the story and the case of Nadia Murad, a survivor who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. Further, it gives potential counterarguments, while establishing that they are based on political and policy reasoning and not on the application of the law to this set of facts, which in this case is the application of the Genocide Convention to the events that took place in August 2014 in the Sinjar region of Iraq and all that has happened since. Lastly, it breaks down how members of ISIS who perpetrated these horrific crimes can be brought to justice by the creation of an international tribunal and the need to create a space for this in order to prevent such crimes in the future. One critical component of labeling an atrocity genocide is deterrence, a part of the crime that is failing in its application today, and, yet, deterrence is a major component of what labeling an atrocity a genocide is meant to accomplish. This paper aims to show what lack of deterrence has meant for the Yazidi community in Iraq, and what it means for other groups around the globe right now and moving forward.