Scholars increasingly call for documentation and analysis of specific forms of conflict-related sexual violence. Moreover, accountability for crimes is stronger when specific patterns of victimization are documented. This article introduces the Repertoires of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (RSVAC) data package, which assembles reports from 1989 to 2015 of forms of sexual violence by government/states forces, insurgent/rebel organizations, and pro-government militias for each conflict and year. RSVAC compiles the reported prevalence of eight forms of sexual violence – rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, forced prostitution, sexual mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization and abortion, non-penetrative sexual torture, and sexual abuse (as well as that of multiple-perpetrator reports of each form). It includes extensive qualitative notes on reported incidents, as well as ‘conflict manuscripts’ that include the relevant portions of source documents. Disaggregating ‘sexual violence’ into its distinct forms enables analysis of the reported presence of forms of sexual violence across time, conflicts, and organizations. We illustrate its usefulness by highlighting hitherto neglected global patterns it suggests, and also discuss limitations, potential biases and underreporting that users need to take into account. We outline several research questions that the data can help answer and suggest how the data package could inform policy efforts to address sexual violence and its consequences.
Since 2006, Mexico has experienced a surge in homicide violence due to national policies and international influences on drug trafficking activities. While the effects of the so-called “Drug War” have been extensively studied in demography and social science research, whether and how the increase in homicides has affected fertility is unknown. This study provides a comprehensive account of the relationship between homicides and changes in fertility rates and desires in Mexico. Using fixed-effects models and a staggered difference-in-differences estimator, we study the effect of homicidal violence on the total fertility rate (TFR) across all Mexican municipalities between 2000–2020. Then, using random-intercept and fixed-effects models, we analyse the association between changes in homicide rates and fertility desires for 6,341 women from the Mexican Family Life Survey (2002–2012). Our findings show no average effect of homicides on TFR for the whole period considered, although TFR declined slightly faster (by 0.1 children per woman) in municipalities experiencing very large homicide spikes between 2010 and 2015. We find no association between municipality-level homicide rates and fertility desires, consistent across educational levels and by parity. Our results show remarkable continuity in the Mexican fertility decline despite the rapid escalation of violence.
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