When ‘Boys Will Not Be Boys’: Variations of Wartime Sexual Violence by Armed Opposition Groups in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and Nepal

Abstract

Wartime sexual violence is often assumed to be inevitable during conflict yet empirical evidence indicates that sexual violence varies in type and frequency within and across conflicts as well as among armed groups. A solid understanding of what variable(s) and causal pathway(s) permit the variation of systematic sexual violence in intrastate conflict situations by specific groups has yet to be developed. What factors explain the variation of sexual violence by certain armed opposition groups during conflict situations? This comparative study employs process-tracing and the congruence method to consider the utility of hypotheses drawn from the work of Elisabeth J. Wood and Kathryn Farr using data from the Sri Lankan (1983-2009), Sierra Leonean (1991-2002), and Nepalese (1996-2005) civil wars. It finds that insurgent leadership prohibition of sexual violence against civilians and equitable intragroup gender dynamics are correlated with a lower frequency of sexual violence against civilian populations by insurgencies during civil wars.