Cohen, Dara Kay. “Female Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence: Wartime Rape in the Sierra Leone Civil War”

In this article, Dara Kay Cohen discusses female fighters’ participation in the wartime rape of civilians. While traditional views hold that women are victims of rape, Cohen draws attention to “the involvement of female fighters in a form of violence in which the male perpetrator/female victim dichotomy is especially strong: the wartime rape of noncombatants” (384). Cohen presents four arguments about “female combatants and their predicted effects on rape committed against noncombatants” (388). The first three arguments are drawn from the existing literature. They are:

1)   “the traditional perspective” (women are less inclined towards violence, and perpetrators of rape are mostly male; armed groups with a higher percentage of female fighters are less inclined to the rape of civilians, as “male fighters feel shame committing rape in front of female counterparts” (390));

2)   “the substitution argument” (perpetrators are mostly male; groups with more women fighters are less likely to commit rape of noncombatants, as female combatants can function as sexual partners or rape substitutes);

3)   “the selection argument” (armed groups attract violent types of people, whether male or female, who seek to commit sexual violence; both men and women are likely to commit rape).

Apart from the aforementioned arguments, Cohen proposes the idea of “combatant socialization”, which holds that rape, especially gang rape, is a means of creating and increasing social cohesion among fighters, and that forcibly recruited combatants of either sex are more likely to commit gang rape.

Cohen then conducts a case study of the Sierra Leone Civil War to find out which argument best accounts for female combatants’ participation in gang rape. By analyzing interviews with ex-combatants in the civil war and data from a national survey, Cohen finds that the first three arguments do not hold. Female fighters in Sierra Leone perpetrate many types of violence alongside their male counterparts, and a higher percentage of female fighters does not lead to “a decreased propensity to rape noncombatants” (406). Due to “the power of internal group dynamics”, “[w]omen and men are subjected to similar pressures from within armed groups and, facing similar circumstances, can be expected to commit similar atrocities”; “this analysis has implications that extend beyond the Sierra Leone civil war” (410).

This article contributes to Perpetrator Studies by addressing a blind spot – the involvement of female fighters in wartime rape. It also provides valuable suggestions for future research concerning perpetrators, such as “be aware of gendered assumptions”, and “be explicit in gathering evidence about specific details of perpetrators, including the sex of the attackers” (411).

Author of this entry: Runcong Liu.

Cohen, Dara Kay. “Female Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence: Wartime Rape in the Sierra Leone Civil War.” World Politics 65, no. 3 (2013): 383–415.