Repertoires of conflict-related sexual violence: Introducing the RSVAC data package
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00223433211044674 |
| Subject Matter | Special Data Features |
Repertoires of conflict-related sexual violence:
Introducing the RSVAC data package
Logan Dumaine
Independent scholar
Ragnhild Nordås
Department of Political Science, University
of Michigan & Peace Research Institute Oslo
Maria Gargiulo
Department of Sociology, University of Oxford
Elisabeth Jean Wood
Department of Political Science, Yale University
Abstract
Scholars increasingly call for documentation and analysis of specific forms of conflict-related sexual violence.
Moreover, accountability for crimes is stronger when specific patterns of victimization are documented. This article
introduces the Repertoires of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (RSVAC) data package, which assembles reports
from 1989 to 2015 of forms of sexual violence by government/states forces, insurgent/rebel organizations, and pro-
government militias for each conflict and year. RSVAC compiles the reported prevalence of eight forms of sexual
violence – rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, forced prostitution, sexual mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced
sterilization and abortion, non-penetrative sexual torture, and sexual abuse (as well as that of multiple-perpetrator
reports of each form). It includes extensive qualitative notes on reported incidents, as well as ‘conflict manuscripts’
that include the relevant portions of source documents. Disaggregating ‘sexual violence’ into its distinct forms
enables analysis of the reported presence of forms of sexual violence across time, conflicts, and organizations. We
illustrate its usefulness by highlighting hitherto neglected global patterns it suggests, and also discuss limitations,
potential biases and underreporting that users need to take into account. We outline several research questions that
the data can help answer and suggest how the data package could inform policy efforts to address sexual violence and
its consequences.
Keywords
armed conflict, rape, sexual violence
Rape occurred on a massive scale during Sierra Leone’s
conflict. The insurgent organization Revolutionary
United Front (RUF), the Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council (AFRC) (military forces who became a rebel
group) and another insurgent group the West Side Boys
(Cohen, 2016) all engaged in high levels of rape. The
RUF and the AFRC also engaged in sexual slavery and
sexual abuse on a massive scale as well as sexual torture
1
(RSVAC dataset). In contrast, the West Side Boys were
reported to engage only in rape.
2
Such differences are
hidden if scholars analyze them as ‘sexual violence’ with-
out disambiguating into different forms and combina-
tions of forms.
Causes of sexual violence are likely to vary with the
specific form: rape during combat operations, for exam-
ple, is likely driven by different mechanisms than forced
marriage or abortion. Social science theory seeking to
explain variation in wartime sexual violence should
therefore analyze its specific forms. Such variation is also
important because accountability is deepened when
Corresponding author:
logdumaine@gmail.com
1
Sexual torture is coded as non-penetrative in RSVAC. Definition in
Table I. See Online appendix section 3.4 for expanded Table I.
2
See Online appendix section 6.
Journal of Peace Research
2022, Vol. 59(4) 611–621
ªThe Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/00223433211044674
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