Rape As War Crime

It is widely acknowledged that women (and children), are more often victimized than men when it comes to war crimes (shelling of non-military targets, civilian executions, torture, and sexual violence etc.), and that the majority of perpetrators of these crimes are men. However, it would be a mistake to distill from this fact that men are naturally more violent, and less peace-loving etc. than women. One major reason for this is that in most armed conflicts, women remain at home, whilst men are sent to fight, creating a population that is potentially vulnerable to victimization by soldiers of the opposing military forces. Out of all the numerous types of war crime, sexual violence is one of the least reported and least prosecuted crimes. Whilst this mirrors, sexual assaults and rape, in non-conflict settings, there are added reasons as to why this is the case during wars and armed struggles, including the law-enforcement agencies that would normally handle such crimes either being absent or non-functioning due to their focus on handling the conflict, and the fact that those victimized may not have the physical, emotional and psychological bandwidth to report the crimes committed against them, as all of their efforts are focused on theirs and their family’s survival during the conflict. As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, reports of sexual violence by Russian troops are starting to come out, reflecting the strategy of using sexual violence, as in the Bosnian conflict (along with others such as Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of Congo), which included, rape, sexual torture/mutilation, along with forced prostitutions and forced pregnancies etc. to traumatize and demoralize the civilian population and its military. Such war crimes against women are often framed as “collateral” damage i.e., crimes committed by a few rogue individuals, whereas often they are in fact well-organized and coordinated military affairs that deliberately target women. “Tactical Rape”, is something that is managed by military leaders based on their understanding of its effects upon the morale, and commitment, of those that resist/fight against them. In this article I want to look at why rape is used as a deliberate weapon of war, and what this tells us about rape and sexual assault in other contexts.

In a 2015 NPR interview, the writer John Krakauer, stated that before he began work on his book, “Missoula – Rape and the Justice System in a College Town” - which investigated sexual assault in an “average” American town - he’d not considered rape as a particularly significant event in the lives of those who had been victimized. In his own words, he’d originally thought that those victimized, should simply “get over it” – something which he admitted was a viewpoint he was extremely ashamed about, after investigating and interviewing women who had been subjected to sexual assaults. For many people who have not personally known people who have been assaulted, this is a fairly common point of view. However, for military leaders who are looking to demoralize and psychologically/emotionally subdue both the civilian population, and those who are fighting for it, rape is a potent weapon. When viewing rape in this context it is important not to lose sight of the individual who has been victimized by talking about sexual assault on a larger scale; it can sometimes be easy to forget the suffering and trauma of each individual, when talking about something that is so widespread. When rape is viewed as a strategic and tactical weapon, the true content of sexual assaults is displayed. The act is less a sex crime, than a crime that involves sex. Rape is about the demonstration of power and control, along with the dispensation of anger – often anger due to the personal inadequacies and frustrations of the perpetrator(s). When rape is used in a conflict setting this demonstration of power and control is not just to those who are victimized but to the whole of society; both the civilian population and the military that represents it. When we view sexual assaults in this context, rapes on college campuses take on a far more sinister overtone. Whilst they may not occur in an organized manner, to achieve a strategic goal, these sexual assaults also communicate a disturbing message to the campus community – especially when they are not properly investigated, and the perpetrators go unpunished (something that routinely happens with war crimes involving rape and sexual assault).

When we look at the traumatic effects of sexual assault on those victimized during armed conflicts, we can see many of the psychological and emotional damages that those raped in non-conflict settings experience, and those points I want to highlight are by no means exhaustive. One of the things that many survivors of sexual assaults highlight about their experiences is the loneliness that they felt post-assault. In a conflict setting, personal suffering often has to take a back seat, to the shared and common goal of resisting an enemy. Due to the fact that everyone is suffering to some degree, individual suffering can get lost, resulting in emotional loneliness and isolation. Also, the individual may not have the bandwidth to process and deal with what they are going through, as they deal with the hardships that living in a warzone bring e.g., the search for food, the maintenance of shelter etc. Things which may be exacerbated when there are family members to care for. In many cases of campus rapes and assaults, those victimized end up dropping out (sometimes with high levels of student debt, and reduced employment opportunities as they lack the qualifications they were attempting to obtain), because they can’t cope with the stress of studying, whilst processing what has happened to them. In a conflict setting obtaining food and shelter is not an option, and so those victimized often have to “drop out” of processing their experiences, suppressing them, which carries an added layer of trauma. In using this comparison, I am not trying to say that some sexual assaults are more significant than others, but to illustrate how different settings can result in different types of traumas.

That rape is used as a tactical tool in many conflicts demonstrates that it takes little investigation by society to understand its effects both on the individual, and any audience who witnesses or hears about it etc. However, whilst we are quick to condemn rape in conflict settings, we are much slower in others e.g., rape is the only crime where those victimized are routinely questioned as to whether the crime actually occurred or not e.g., if you are mugged, and have something stolen, nobody is likely to question whether you are making it up or not – and it is virtually impossible to prove the absence of something such as your wallet etc. Whilst rape as a war crime, needs to be taken more seriously, so do rape and sexual assaults in every other setting.