Confronting Wartime Sexual Violence: Public Support for Survivors in Bosnia

Abstract

Existing research on conflict-related sexual violence focuses on the motivations of perpetrators and effects on survivors. What remains less clear is how postconflict societies respond to the hardships survivors face. In survey experiments in Bosnia, we examine public support for financial aid, legal aid, and public recognition for survivors. First, we find a persistent ethnocentric view of sexual violence, where respondents are less supportive when the perpetrator is identified as co-ethnic and survivors are perceived as out-groups. Second, respondents are less supportive of male survivors than female survivors, which we attribute to social stigmas surrounding same-gender sexual activity. Consistent with our argument, those who are intolerant of homosexuality are especially averse to providing aid to male survivors. This study points to the long-term challenges survivors face due to ethnic divisions and social stigmatization from sexual violence.

Key Elements in the Representation of Sexual Violence in Spain: Consent, Myths and Stigma

“…A third and final motive is rape as an assault or insult to the generic man, as a challenge of power. This is the case of rapes in territories at war, where the body of women is another space to be conquered, an action that weakens and humiliates the male enemy [46]. As Kate Millet pointed out, "rape as an offense by one man to another, by using, abusing and desecrating the other's woman" [34].…”