Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?

Abstract

This article explores a particular pattern of wartime violence, the relative absence of sexual violence on the part of many armed groups. This neglected fact has important policy implications: If some groups do not engage in sexual violence, then rape is not inevitable in war as is sometimes claimed, and there are stronger grounds for holding responsible those groups that do engage in sexual violence. After developing a theoretical framework for understanding the observed variation in wartime sexual violence, the article analyzes the puzzling absence of sexual violence on the part of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of Sri Lanka.

Endemic Sexual Violence and Abuse: Contexts and Dispositions

“…Wood (2006) Wood (2008Wood ( , 2009 proposed four social processes that affect the likelihood of escalating SVA in armed conflicts: (1) strategies used by military hierarchies and leaders (for example, expectations of behaviour standards, prohibition or reinforcement of behaviours, recruit training); (2) the socialisation processes adopted by combatants (for example, culture of obedience, diffusion of responsibility, depersonalisation of the victim group); (3) social norms and beliefs that existed prior to the conflict, or that develop and change as the conflict unfolds; and (4) group dynamics. Even in otherwise violent and chaotic war contexts, it remains possible for positive social controls to be maintained, and therefore for non-combat-related violence such as SVA to be kept in check.…”

“…Even in otherwise violent and chaotic war contexts, it remains possible for positive social controls to be maintained, and therefore for non-combat-related violence such as SVA to be kept in check. Wood (2009) provides an example of this, arguing that, despite the frequent use of other serious forms of violence including mass civilian killings, the apparent absence of SVA perpetrated by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LLTE) combatants in Sri Lanka may be explained by the maintenance of pre-existing Tamil social norms, including the prohibition of sexual relationships between unmarried persons. These norms were upheld and strictly enforced by LLTE leadership through a strict code of conduct, consistent and firm discipline, and the systematic training of new recruits.…”

Ordered Rape

“…A related literature tries to explain the variation in the usage of sexual violence across and within conflicts through organizational frameworks (see Annan, Blattman, Mazurana, & Carlson, 2011;Butler, Gluch, & Mitchell, 2007;Cohen, 2011;Leiby, 2009;Wood, 2006Wood, , 2009. It is possible to group the arguments developed in these analyses according to whether the perpetrators or the eventual planners are the main culprits.…”

Bridging the gap: Early warning, gender and the responsibility to protect

“…However, beyond these suggestions, there has been little direction on how to start building such knowledge. Widespread and systematic SGBV is increasingly identified as a product of war (Taylor 2013), but the specific preconditions for SGBV and reasons why it is prevalent in some armed conflicts but not others remain disputed (Wood 2009;Cohen 2013). As we discuss below, the difficulties in collecting gender sensitive data (and the limited understanding of gender sensitive data) has led to their exclusion from early warning frameworks; thus the relationship between SGBV and mass atrocities, irrespective of the presence of conflict, is discussed but not presented as fact in these frameworks.…”