Male Perpetrators

Citation:

Truscott, Amanda. 2008. “Congo Ceasefire Brings Little Relief for Women.” CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal 179 (2): 133–4.

Author: Amanda Truscott

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Reproductive Health, Trauma, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Congo-Brazzaville

Year: 2008

Citation:

Hanlon, Haleigh. 2008. “Implications for Health Care Practice and Improved Policies for Victims of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 10 (2): 64–72.

Author: Haleigh Hanlon

Abstract:

As violent conflict ravages the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of women and girls are victims of sexual violence. Unfortunately, there are few services available to this population. While the exact number of victims is uncertain, the available data indicate the large scale of women and girls affected by sexual violence, and the urgent need for aid, services, and better policies to improve care. This humanitarian crisis is slowly gaining Western attention, but the current demand for humanitarian action and improved policies is greatest in the following three categories which will be addressed in the body of the work below: (1) an increase in humanitarian aid, (2) medical assistance, and (3) social support.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Health, Humanitarian Assistance, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2008

Citation:

Wojcicki, Janet Maia. 2002. “‘She Drank His Money’: Survival Sex and the Problem of Violence in Taverns in Gauteng Province, South Africa.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16 (3): 267–93. doi:10.1525/maq.2002.16.3.267.

Author: Janet Maia Wojcicki

Abstract:

This article examines the practice of "survival sex" in the taverns of Soweto and Hammanskraal area, South Africa. Women who engage in survival sex do not self-identify as commercial sex workers, and the community does not identify them as such. Those who structure HIV prevention programs should not confound such women with commercial sex workers, because effective intervention may vary between the two groups. Violence against women who engage in survival sex in taverns is common, as it is argued that, when a woman accepts beer from a man, she is obliged to exchange sex (because she has "drunk his money"). The South African government should prioritize the reduction of violence as a way to reduce HIV transmission, as, in the context of violence, women do not have the option of negotiating safer sex.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2002

Citation:

Razack, Sherene. 2005. “How Is White Supremacy Embodied? Sexualized Racial Violence at Abu Ghraib.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 17 (2): 341–63.

Author: Sherene Razack

Abstract:

The violence inflicted on Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, by both male and female American and British soldiers, was very clearly sexualized. A pyramid of naked male prisoners forced to simulate sodomy conveyed graphically that the project of empire, the West's domination of the non-West, requires strong infusions of a violent heterosexuality and patriarchy. This article explores what we can learn from Abu Ghraib about how empire is embodied and how it comes into existence through multiple systems of domination. In the first part, I discuss the role of visual practices and the making of racial hierarchies a consideration made necessary by the 1,800 photos of torture. In the second part, I consider the violence as a ritual that enables white men to achieve a sense of mastery over the racial other, at the same time that it provides a sexualized intimacy forbidden in white supremacy and patriarchy. In the third part of this article, I consider the role of white women at Abu Ghraib, arguing that it is as members of their race that we can best grasp white women's participation in the violence—a participation that facilitates the same mastery and gendered intimacy afforded to white men who engage in racial violence. In the conclusion, I consider the regime of racial terror in evidence at Abu Ghraib and other places, focusing on terror as a "trade in mythologies" that organizes the way that bodies come to express the racial arrangements of empire.

Keywords: political prisoners, prisons, race, heterosexuality, patriarchy, Torture, sexual violence

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Race, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, Male Perpetrators, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Men, SV against Women, Sexuality Regions: MENA, Americas, North America, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq, United States of America

Year: 2005

Citation:

Engels, Bettina. 2004. “Rape and Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity.” Politikon: The IAPSS Journal, no. 8, 59-70.

Author: Bettina Engels

Abstract:

With her paper Rape as a War Crime (Politikon 6/2003, p. 55-69), Andrea Theocharis has put an issue on the agenda, which has long been missing in Politikon’s discussions. [Engels is] grateful to Andrea for starting an important debate, which [Engels] would like to continue by giving some remarks to her contribution focusing on the gender constructionist dimension of rape in violent conflicts. Agreeing with Andrea, [Engels] will argue that rape and sexual violence are not only systematic and strategic weapons in violent conflicts but gendered crimes which cannot be analyzed appropriately without theorizing social and cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity. [Engels] will outline how gender-blind approaches fail to meet the issue of rape in violent conflicts. By mentioning some exemplary empirical figures, [Engels] will show that rape in violent conflicts is neither a new phenomena nor can it be considered a by-product of war. It must be emphasized that rape is not an act of sexuality but a crime against human physical and psychical integrity. [Engels] will discuss gender-sensitive approaches, which analyze rape in violent conflicts. Special attention will be paid to the view of rape as an act of male violence against women, which has also been outlined by Andrea. [Engels] will then focus on the construction of hegemonic masculinity and the widely ignored fact that also men are victims of rape and sexual torture in violent conflicts. [Engels] will conclude with emphasizing that constructions of femininity and masculinity are integral to violent conflicts in general and to rape and sexual violence in particular. If mainstream conflict analysis continues to ignore the dimensions of gender constructions, it will fail to meet its subject appropriately.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Men

Year: 2004

Citation:

Friedman, Amy R. 1992. “Rape and Domestic Violence: The Experience of Refugee Women.” Women & Therapy 13 (1-2): 65–78. doi:10.1300/J015V13N01_07.

Author: Amy R. Friedman

Abstract:

Despite the fact that women and girls make up over half of the world's 18 million refugees, little attention or resources have been dedicated to meeting their needs. Although all refugees face health and protection problems, women are susceptible to additional problems as a result of their gender. Women and girls who flee their home countries to escape violence and persecution are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. Rape is a common experience for refugee women, and the resulting trauma has life altering affects for both the women and their families. Often male refugees suffer from "heightened male vulnerability" as a reaction to witnessing torture, violence or rape. This, combined with the additional stress of resettlement in a new culture, often leads male refugees to resort to domestic violence as a way of reestablishing control and gaining power. Since refugee women are the pillars of their families, domestic violence and rape trauma present serious obstacles to the self-sufficiency of refugee families. It is the responsibility of health care providers in both the international community and in countries of resettlement to significantly address sexual violence and its repercussions on the successful resettlement of refugees.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Health, Trauma, International Organizations, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women

Year: 1992

Citation:

Tétreault, Mary Ann. 2006. “The Sexual Politics of Abu Ghraib: Hegemony, Spectacle, and the Global War on Terror.” NWSA Journal 18 (3): 33–50.

Author: Mary Ann Tétreault

Abstract:

Revelations of the torture, murder, and maltreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came with sensational photographs of U.S. military personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners and forcing them to perform sexualized acts. Evidence of gross violations of international law, the photographs have been used by U.S. elites to construct a discourse not about war crimes but "prisoner abuse, " some referring to the activities recorded as analogous to fraternity hazing. In this essay, I argue that the photos reflect complex reactions to the attacks of September 11, 2001, including a need to assert U.S. global dominance by punishing those who are, in American eyes, an inferior oriental enemy. The photographs are analyzed in the context of orientalism in the U.S. chain of command, a phenomenon linked to what feminists call "the politics of the gaze" - the vulnerability of women and other subalterns to virtual as well as actual violation by those in positions of domination. They are compared to evidence of other rituals of violence, such as lynching, orchestrated by elites and imitated by popular-culture entrepreneurs. The sexual politics of Abu Ghraib includes the deployment of female figures to brand, scapegoat, and repair the damage from discovery of the photographs, thereby trivializing the policies and behaviors of U.S. officials and eliding the American public's responsibility for the continued U.S. failure to condemn, much less to halt, the torture carried out in their name.

Keywords: hegemony, Torture, war crimes, orientalism, pornography, rituals of violence

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Justice, War Crimes, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Torture, Sexual Torture Regions: MENA, Americas, North America, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq, United States of America

Year: 2006

Citation:

Min, Pyong Gap. 2003. “Korean ‘Comfort Women’: The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class.” Gender & Society 17 (6): 938–57.

Author: Pyong Gap Min

Abstract:

During the Asian and Pacific War (1937-45), the Japanese government mobilized approximately 200,000 Asian women to military brothels to sexually serve Japanese soldiers. The majority of these victims were unmarried young women from Korea, Japan’s colony at that time. In the early 1990s, Korean feminist leaders helped more than 200 Korean survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery to come forward to tell the truth, which has further accelerated the redress movement for the women. One major issue in the redress movement and research relating to the so-called “comfort women” issue is whether Japan’s colonization of Korea or gender hierarchy was a more fundamental cause of the Korean women’s suffering. Using an intersectional perspective, this article analyzes how colonial power, gender hierarchy, and class were inseparably tied together to make the victims’ lives miserable. By doing so, it shows that a one-sided emphasis on colonization or gender hierarchy will misrepresent the feminist political issue and misinterpret the “comfort women’s” experiences.

Keywords: sexual violence against women, colonial power, Gender, class

Topics: Armed Conflict, Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2003

Citation:

Price, Lisa S. 2001. “Finding the Man in the Soldier-Rapist: Some Reflections on Comprehension and Accountability.” Women’s Studies International Forum 24 (2): 211–27.

Author: Lisa S. Price

Abstract:

Drawing on research into war rape in the former Yugoslavia, this article considers a means of comprehending the motives of perpetrators. It argues that they are neither mad nor bad but ordinary men acting out of comprehensible motives. It further argues that to the extent that perpetrators act out of choice, they can and should be held accountable for their acts of sexual violence.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2001

Citation:

Hughes, Donna M., and Zorica Mrsevic. 1997. “Violence against Women in Belgrade, Serbia: SOS Hotline 1991 - 1993.” Violence Against Women - An International Interdisciplinary Journal 3 (2): 101–28.

Authors: Donna M. Hughes, Zorica Mrsevic

Abstract:

The SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence opened in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1990. For each call reporting an incident of violence, a data form was completed with the details of the call. Almost all the callers were victims of violence from family members or intimate partners. The majority reported incidents of physical and verbal/emotional violence; a minority reported sexual and economic violence. The frequency and duration of violence were very high. Callers were often forced to live with perpetrators because of the lack of available housing, which worsened due to privatization, economic sanctions against Serbia, and the influx of refugees. Men's participation in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia increased their violence against women at home, especially sons against their mothers. Most refugees were housed in private homes, resulting in increased violence against women refugees and women hosts.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Serbia

Year: 1997