Kill the Men, Baby Boys and Mothers, Rape the Beautiful Girls: Gender-Based Violence in Darfur

• In Event: Toward a Criminology of Atrocity

Abstract

While much research examines gendered violence during episodes of mass atrocity, scholarship has typically focused on rape committed by men against women. Rarely has this scholarship examined men’s and women’s victimization simultaneously or considered the broad range of actions that constitute gender-based violence. Drawing upon narratives from 1,136 Darfuri refugees interviewed in Chad in 2004, we examine myriad forms of gender-based violence perpetrated against women, girls, men, and boys during genocide. In doing so, we reveal areas of dissidence and convergence, illustrating how local norms surrounding gender pattern violence in distinct ways. In line with interactionist work, we also illustrate how this violence materially and symbolically transforms bodies and space, ultimately influencing the social death of victim groups. Explicitly recognizing the multiple forms of men’s and women’s victimization as both complementary and contrasting permits an opportunity to advance existing theory and further informs our understanding of how and why gender-based violence occurs.

Authors

• Gabrielle Ferrales, University of Minnesota

• Hollie Nyseth Brehm, The Ohio State University

• Michael Englehart, The Ohio State University

• Allison Nobles, University of Minnesota