IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/polsoc/v37y2009i1p131-161.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabeth Jean Wood

    (Yale University, elisabeth.wood@yale.edu, Santa Fe Institute)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabeth Jean Wood, 2009. "Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?," Politics & Society, , vol. 37(1), pages 131-161, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:37:y:2009:i:1:p:131-161
    DOI: 10.1177/0032329208329755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032329208329755
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0032329208329755?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Humphreys, Macartan & Weinstein, Jeremy M., 2006. "Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(3), pages 429-447, August.
    2. Elisabeth Jean Wood, 2006. "Variation in Sexual Violence during War," Politics & Society, , vol. 34(3), pages 307-342, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria Paula Saffon & Fabio Sánchez, 2019. "Historical grievances and war dynamics: Old land conflicts as a cause of current forced displacements in Colombia," Documentos CEDE 17320, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    2. Christopher Blattman, 2009. "Civil War: A Review of Fifty Years of Research," Working Papers id:2231, eSocialSciences.
    3. Jeannie Annan & Christopher Blattman & Dyan Mazurana & Khristopher Carlson, 2009. "Women and Girls at War: Wives , Mothers, and Fighters in the Lord s Resistance Army," HiCN Working Papers 63, Households in Conflict Network.
    4. Maja Korac, 2018. "Feminists against Sexual Violence in War: The Question of Perpetrators and Victims Revisited," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-13, September.
    5. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    6. Mayra Buvinic & Monica Das Gupta & Ursula Casabonne & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality: An Overview," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 110-138, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    2. Christopher Blattman, 2009. "Civil War: A Review of Fifty Years of Research," Working Papers id:2231, eSocialSciences.
    3. Maleke Fourati & Victoire Girard & Jeremy Laurent-Lucchetti, 2021. "Sexual violence as a weapon of war," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2103, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    4. Joan Esteban & Massimo Morelli & Dominic Rohner, 2015. "Strategic Mass Killings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(5), pages 1087-1132.
    5. Chyanda Querido, 2009. "State-Sponsored Mass Killing in African Wars—Greed or Grievance?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 15(3), pages 351-361, August.
    6. Katherine Casey & Rachel Glennerster & Edward Miguel, 2014. "Healing the Wounds: Learning from Sierra Leone's Postwar Institutional Reforms," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume I: Government and Institutions, pages 15-32, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Singh, Risha & Goli, Srinivas & Singh, Abhra, 2022. "Armed conflicts and girl child marriages: A global evidence," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    8. Plümper, Thomas & Neumayer, Eric, 2009. "Famine Mortality, Rational Political Inactivity, and International Food Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 50-61, January.
    9. Marius Mehrl, 2023. "Female combatants and rebel group behaviour: Evidence from Nepal," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 40(3), pages 260-280, May.
    10. Piotr Lis & Michael Spagat & Uih Ran Lee, 2021. "Civilian targeting in African conflicts: A poor actor’s game that spreads through space," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(5), pages 900-914, September.
    11. Pamela Jakiela & Owen Ozier, 2019. "The Impact of Violence on Individual Risk Preferences: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 547-559, July.
    12. Maria Paula Saffon & Fabio Sánchez, 2019. "Historical grievances and war dynamics: Old land conflicts as a cause of current forced displacements in Colombia," Documentos CEDE 17320, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    13. Justino, Patricia, 2016. "Supply and demand restrictions to education in conflict-affected countries: New research and future agendas," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 76-85.
    14. Philip A Martin, 2021. "Commander–community ties after civil war," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(4), pages 778-793, July.
    15. Cyanne E. Loyle & Christopher Sullivan & Christian Davenport, 2014. "The Northern Ireland Research Initiative: Data on the Troubles from 1968 to 19981," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 31(1), pages 94-106, February.
    16. Schmid, Lena & Renner, Laura, 2020. "The Decision to Flee: Analyzing Gender-Specific Determinants of International Refugee Migration," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224596, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Jason Lyall, 2008. "Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," HiCN Working Papers 44, Households in Conflict Network.
    18. Erik Mohlin, 2010. "Internalized social norms in conflicts: an evolutionary approach," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 169-181, April.
    19. Martin Ottmann, 2017. "Rebel constituencies and rebel violence against civilians in civil conflicts," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(1), pages 27-51, January.
    20. Jannie Lilja & Giulia Ferrari & José Alvarado & Laura-Alina Fabich & Gulzhan Asylbek Kyzy & Leah Kenny & Mazeda Hossain, 2024. "Territorial control by non-state armed groups and gendered access to healthcare in conflict using a new complex adaptive systems framework," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:37:y:2009:i:1:p:131-161. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.