Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:23:06.984Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Female Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence: Wartime Rape in the Sierra Leone Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2013

Dara Kay Cohen
Dara Kay Cohen*
Affiliation:
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Email: [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Much of the current scholarship on wartime violence, including studies of the combatants themselves, assumes that women are victims and men are perpetrators. However, there is an increasing awareness that women in armed groups may be active fighters who function as more than just cooks, cleaners, and sexual slaves. In this article, the author focuses on the involvement of female fighters in a form of violence that is commonly thought to be perpetrated only by men: the wartime rape of noncombatants. Using original interviews with ex-combatants and newly available survey data, she finds that in the Sierra Leone civil war, female combatants were participants in the widespread conflict-related violence, including gang rape. A growing body of evidence from other conflicts suggests that Sierra Leone is not an anomaly and that women likely engage in conflict-related violence, including sexual violence, more often than is currently believed. Many standard interpretations of wartime rape are undermined by the participation of female perpetrators. To explain the involvement of women in wartime rape, the author argues that women in armed group units face similar pressure to that faced by their male counterparts to participate in gang rape. The study has broad implications for future avenues of research on wartime violence, as well as for policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 383 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Advocates for Human Rights, The. 2009. “A House with Two Rooms: Final Report of the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission Diaspora Project.” June 19: 245.Google Scholar
African Rights. 1995. “Rwanda: Not So Innocent: When Women Become Killers.” London, UK: African Rights.Google Scholar
Alison, Miranda. 2004. “Women as Agents of Political Violence: Gendering Security.” Security Dialogue 35, no. 4 (December): 447–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alison, Miranda. 2007. “Wartime Sexual Violence: Women's Human Rights and Questions of Masculinity.” Review of International Studies 33, no. 1 (January): 75–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annan, Jeannie, Blattman, Christopher, Carlson, Khristopher, and Mazurana, Dyan. 2011. “Civil War, Reintegration, and Gender in Northern Uganda.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 55, no. 6 (December): 877–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asher, Jana, ed., and Human Rights Data Analysis Group. 2004. “ABA/Benetech Sierra Leone War Crimes Documentation Survey (slwcd).” At https://hrdag.org/sierraleone/.Google Scholar
Baaz, Maria Eriksson, and Stern, Maria. 2009. “Why Do Soldiers Rape? Masculinity, Violence, and Sexuality in the Armed Forces in the Congo (DRC).” International Studies Quarterly 53, no. 2 (June): 495–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellows, John, and Miguel, Edward. 2009. “War and Local Collective Action in Sierra Leone.” Journal of Public Economics 93, no. 11–12 (December): 1144–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bijleveld, Catrien, and Hendriks, Jan. 2003. “Juvenile Sex Offenders: Differences between Group and Solo Offenders.” Psychology, Crime and Law 9, no. 3 (September): 237–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blattman, Christopher. 2009. “From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda.” American Political Science Review 103, no. 2 (May): 231–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, Mia. 2011. Bombshell: The Many Faces of Women Terrorists. Ontario, Canada: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bourke, Joanna. 1999. An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare. London, UK: Granta Books.Google Scholar
Bourke, Joanna. 2007. Rape: Sex, Violence, History. London, UK: Virago Press.Google Scholar
Brownmiller, Susan. 1975. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Bystydzienski, Jill. 1993. “Women in Groups and Organizations: Implications for the Use of Force.” In Howes, Ruth and Stevenson, Michael, eds., Women and the Use of Military Force. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Card, Claudia. 1996. “Rape as a Weapon of War.” Hypatia 11, no. 4 (Autumn): 5–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, R. Charli. 2003. “‘Women and Children First’: Gender, Norms and Humanitarian Evacuation in the Balkans, 1991–1995.” International Organization 57, no. 4 (November): 661–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, R. Charli. 2006. “Recognizing Gender-Based Violence against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Situations.” Security Dialogue 37, no. 1 (March): 83–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvajal, Doreen. 2010. “A Female Approach to Peacekeeping.” New York Times. March 5. At http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/world/africa/06ihtffpeace.html, accessed October 26, 2011.Google Scholar
Cohen, Dara Kay. 2010. “Explaining Sexual Violence during Civil War.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Cohen, Dara Kay. Forthcoming. “Explaining Rape during Civil War: Cross-national Evidence, 1980–2009.” American Political Science Review.Google Scholar
Coulter, Chris. 2008. “Female Fighters in the Sierra Leone War: Challenging the Assumptions?” Feminist Review 88 (April): 54–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulter, Chris. 2009. Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers: Women's Lives through War and Peace in Sierra Leone. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
DeGroot, Gerard. 2008. “Wanted: A Few Good Women.” Keynote address at the Gender Issues in Peacekeeping Missions conference, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Rwanda Defense Forces, Kigali, Rwanda, March 28–29.Google Scholar
Faedi, Benedetta. 2010. “From Violence against Women to Women's Violence in Haiti.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Franklin, Karen. 2004. “Enacting Masculinity: Antigay Violence and Group Rape as Participant Theater.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 1, no. 2 (April): 25–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, Joshua S. 2001. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, Philip, and Morris, Errol. 2008. “Exposure: The Woman behind the Camera at Abu Ghraib.” New Yorker, March 24. At http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/24/080324fa_fact_gourevitch, accessed October 26, 2011.Google Scholar
Groth, Nicholas A., and Birbaum, H. Jean. 1979. Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender. New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, Francisco Sanín. 2008. “Repertoires of Violence: Colombia 1930–2006.” Manuscript.Google Scholar
Hudson, Valerie M., Caprioli, Mary, Ballif-Spanvill, Bonnie, McDermott, Rose, and Emmett, Chad F.. 2009. “The Heart of the Matter: The Security of Women and the Security of States.” International Security 33, no. 3 (Winter): 7–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, and Weinstein, Jeremy M.. 2004. “What the Fighters Say: A Survey of Ex-Combatants in Sierra Leone, June–August 2003.” At http://www.columbia.edu/~mh2245/SL.htm, accessed May 17, 2013.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, and Weinstein, Jeremy M.. 2008. “Who Rebels? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War.” American Journal of Political Science 52, no. 2 (April): 436–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Husejnovic, Merima. 2011. “Bosnian War's Wicked Women Get Off Lightly.” Balkan Insight. February 7. At http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnian-war-s-wicked-women-get-off-lightly, accessed October 26, 2011.Google Scholar
Jewkes, Rachel, Dunkle, Kristin, Koss, Mary P., Levin, Jonathan B., Nduna, Mzikazi, Jama, Nwabisa, and Sikweyiya, Yandisa. 2006. “Rape Perpetration by Young, Rural South African Men: Prevalence, Patterns and Risk Factors.” Social Science and Medicine 63, no. 11 (December): 2949–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Kristin, Scott, Jennifer, Rughita, Bigy, Kisielewski, Michael, Asher, Jana, Ong, Ricardo, and Lawry, Lynn. 2010. “Association of Sexual Violence and Human Rights Violations with Physical and Mental Health in Territories of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Journal of the American Medical Association 304, no. 5 (August): 553–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, Adam. 2002. “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda.” Journal of Genocide Research 4, no. 1 (March): 65–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaminski, Marek M. 2003. “Games Prisoners Play: Allocation of Social Roles in a Total Institution.” Rationality and Society 15, no. 2 (May): 189–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keen, David. 2005. Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone. New York, N.Y.: Palgrave: 242.Google Scholar
Kier, Elizabeth. 1998. “Homosexuals in the U.S. Military: Open Integration and Combat Effectiveness.” International Security 23, no. 2 (Autumn): 5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landesman, Peter. 2002. “A Woman's Work.” New York Times Magazine, September 15. At http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/magazine/a-woman-s-work.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm, accessed May 17, 2013.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, Megan. 2009. “Securitization and Desecuritization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone.” Security Studies 18, no. 2 (May): 241–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, Megan. 2010. “Securitizing Sex? Towards a Theory of the Utility of Wartime Sexual Violence.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 12, no. 2 (June): 202–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKinnon, Catherine. 2006. Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
McKay, Susan. 2005. “Girls as ‘Weapons of Terror’ in Northern Uganda and Sierra Leonean Rebel Fighting Forces.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 28, no. 5 (September–October): 385–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKay, Susan, and Mazurana, Dyan. 2004. Where Are the Girls? Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique: Their Lives during and after War. Montreal, Canada: International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.Google Scholar
McKelvey, Tara, ed. 2007. One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers. Emeryville, Calif.: Seal Press.Google Scholar
Mezey, Gillian. 1994. “Rape in War.” Journal of Forensic Psychiatry 5, no. 3 (December): 583–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, John. 2000. “The Banality of ‘Ethnic War.’” International Security 25, no. 1 (Summer): 42–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Rourke, Lindsey. 2009. “What's Special about Female Suicide Terrorism.” Security Studies 18, no. 4 (December): 681–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Sullivan, Chris. 1991. “Acquaintance Gang Rape on Campus.” In Parrot, Andrea and Bechhofer, Laurie, eds., Acquaintance Rape: The Hidden Crime. New York. N.Y.: John Wiley and Sons: 140–57.Google Scholar
Pershing, Jana L. 2006. “Men and Women's Experiences with Hazing in a Male-Dominated Elite Military Institution.” Men and Masculinities 8, no. 4 (April): 470–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, Krijn, and Richards, Paul. 1998. “‘Why We Fight’: Voices of Youth Combatants in Sierra Leone.” Africa 68, no. 2 (March): 183–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Physicians for Human Rights. 2002. “War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone: A Population-Based Assessment.” At https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_Reports/sierra-leone-sexual-violence-2002.pdf.Google Scholar
Porter, Louise, and Alison, Laurence. 2006. “Examining Group Rape: A Descriptive Analysis of Offender and Victim Behavior.” European Journal of Criminology 3, no. 3 (July): 357–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabbie, Jacob M., and Lodewijkx, Hein F. M.. 1995. “Aggressive Reactions to Social Injustice by Individuals and Groups as a Function of Social Norms, Gender, and Anonymity.” Social Justice Research 8, no. 1 (March): 7–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scully, Diana. 1990. Understanding Sexual Violence: A Study of Convicted Rapists. Boston, Mass.: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Sharlach, Lisa. 1999. “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Agents and Objects of Genocide.” Journal of Genocide Research 1, no. 3 (November): 387–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharlach, Lisa. 2000. “Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda.” New Political Science 22, no. 1: 89–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharlach, Lisa. 2009. “States of Emergency, State of Terror: Sexual Violence in the South African and Peruvian Counterinsurgencies.” Journal of Power 2, no. 3 (December): 441–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sivakumaran, Sandesh. 2007. “Sexual Violence against Men in Armed Conflict.” European Journal of International Law 18, no. 2: 253–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura. Forthcoming. Rape among Women: Women War Rapists and Sex Subordination. New York, N.Y.: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura, and Gentry, Caron. 2007. Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics. London, UK, and New York, N.Y.: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Smith, Alison L., Gambette, Catherine, and Longley, Thomas. 2004. “Conflict Mapping in Sierra Leone: Violations of International Humanitarian Law from 1991 to 2002.” No Peace without Justice. At http://www.npwj.org/ICC/Conflict-Mapping-Sierra-Leone-Violations-International-Humanitarian-Law-1991-2002.html, accessed October 26, 2011.Google Scholar
Specht, Irma. 2006. Red Shoes: Experiences of Girl Combatants in Liberia. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Stemple, Lara. 2008. “Male Rape and Human Rights.” Hasting Law Journal 60: 605–46.Google Scholar
Theidon, Kimberly. 2007. “Gender in Transition: Common Sense, Women, and War.” Journal of Human Rights 6, no. 4 (July–August): 453–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Sierra Leone. 2004. “Witness to Truth: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone.” At http://www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-sierra-leone, accessed October 26, 2011.Google Scholar
United Nations General Assembly. 2006. “In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women: Report of the Secretary-General.” Document A/61/122/Add.1, July 6.Google Scholar
Van Creveld, Martin. 2000. “The Great Illusion: Women in the Military.” Millennium 29, no. 2: 429–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vikman, Elisabeth. 2005. “Modern Combat: Sexual Violence in Warfare, Part II.” Anthropology and Medicine 12, no. 1 (April): 33–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, Jeremy. 2007. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Winslow, Donna. 1999. “Rites of Passage and Group Bonding in the Canadian Airborne.” Armed Forces and Society 25, no. 3 (April): 429–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2006. “Variation in Sexual Violence during War.” Politics and Society 34, no. 3 (September): 307–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2008. “Sexual Violence during War: Toward an Understanding of Variation.” In Shapiro, Ian; Kalyvas, Stathis, and Masoud, Tarek, eds., Order, Conflict, and Violence. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press: 321–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2009. “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?” Politics and Society 37, no. 1 (March):131–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar