Introduction

• DOI: 10.1177/0032329208329756
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• Author: Elisabeth Jean Wood
• Date: 01 March 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

Patterns of Wartime Sexual Violence

Sexual violence—including rape, sexual torture, sexual slavery, and forced

abortion—is a common form of violence against some of the most vulnerable

civilians during war. As a result of the mobilization by women’s groups advocat-

ing prosecutionof rape in Bosnia and Rwanda, international legal authorities now

prosecute various formsof sexual violence as war crimes, as crimesagainst human-

ity, and, in some contexts, as genocide. Humanitarian and human rights organiza-

tions haveincreased the resources theydevote to the documentation and treatment

of wartime sexualviolence. Despite sanctions rangingfrom ostracism to expulsion

and, in some cultural settings, the risk of deathvia so-called honor killings, some

survivors or their families speak out to denounce the violence and to seek treat-

ment and justice.

The increasing media, legal, and humanitarian attention to wartime sexual

violence may reinforce a common perception that rape is a ubiquitous “weapon

of war,” as indeed it is in some conflicts.Yet some armed groups do not engage

in sexual violence as a strategy, tactic, or practice, despite engaging in other

forms of violence against civilians in other forms.

The varying patterns of sexual violence across conflicts, armed groups, and

small units present challenges to our scholarly understanding of the repertoires

of violence during war, the relationships between armed actors and civilians, the

dynamics within armed groups that promote or limit sexual violence, and the

diffusion of distinct forms across conflicts and groups. The articles publ ished

here as a special section contribute to an emerging literature that analyzes the

varied incidence, forms, and dynamics of wartime sexual violence. The articles

were presented at a workshop on wartime sexual violence held at Yale

University in November 2007.

In his article on patterns of sexual violence on the eastern front during World

War II, Jeffrey Burds draws on newly available archives to document the

widespread sexual violence carried out by the German, Soviet, and various

nationalist forces. Despite theNazi prohibition of “racial mixing,” those targeted

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POLITICS & SOCIETY,Vol. 37 No. 1, March 2009 33-34

DOI: 10.1177/0032329208329756

© 2009 Sage Publications

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL SECTION