How Sexual Violence Deters Wartime Support

• In Event: An Exploration into Gender's Behavioral and Policy Implications

Abstract

How do civilians react to reports of rape during war? Widespread or systematic sexual violence is a common occurrence in war, yet we know little about how this affects non-victimized civilians' wartime behavior. I argue that the threat of sexual violence decreases the likelihood that civilians offer wartime support to armed groups, and that this effect varies depending on the individual's gender identity and emotional reaction. I test this argument by focusing on Ukrainian wartime support behavior in two periods of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The first study analyzes how individual distance from loci of sexual violence predicts support to armed groups, concluding that individuals living closer to locations where sexual violence occurred in 2014 were less likely to offer wartime support. A second study of original survey research in wartime Ukraine after the 2022 Russian invasion confirms these findings and demonstrates the importance of anger and fear in predicting civilian reaction. This study makes an important contribution to knowledge of the legacies of violence by shedding light on the unique consequences of sexual violence.

Author

• Taylor Jane Damann, Washington University in St. Louis