Patriarchy and Sexual Violence in Civil Conflicts: A Theoretical Analysis of Sierra Leone Open Access

Abstract

This work aims to test the relationship between patriarchy and the prevalence of sexual violence perpetrated in civil war, with the hypothesis that the two will be positively correlated. Based on an in-depth analysis of combatant groups in Sierra Leone, the hypothesis must be rejected in favor of the null hypothesis: patriarchy and sexual violence are not positively correlated. However, the qualitative analysis does yield an interesting potential trend. Following the 1999 RUF assault on Freetown ("Operation No Living Thing") when levels of RUF perpetuated sexual violence spiked, the other combatants groups saw increased levels of perpetrated sexual violence, suggesting there may be a domino effect amongst multiple combatant groups namely that, as one group becomes increasingly sexually violent, the others follow suit. While this trend will need further study to confirm, the fact remains that there does not seem to be any substantial tie between patriarchy and the level of sexual violence perpetrated by Sierra Leonean combatant groups.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 SIGNIFICANCE 2

1.2 CONTRIBUTIONS 3

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 DEFINING PATRIARCHY 6

2.2 MILITARY SEXUAL VIOLENCE 9

2.3 IMPORTANCE OF CIVIL MODERN CONFLICT 10

2.4 PATRIARCHY AND MILITARY SEXUAL VIOLENCE 14

3.0 DATA AND METHODS 19

3.1 HYPOTHESIS 19

3.2 UNIT OF ANALYSIS 20

3.3 VARIABLES 21

3.4 SOURCES OF DATA 25

3.5 METHODS OF ANALYSIS 26

4.0 CASE STUDY: SIERRA LEONE 27

4.1 REVOLUTIONARY UNITED FRONT 31

4.2 CIVIL DEFENSE FORCES/KAMAJORS 43

4.3 ARMED FORCES REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL 52

4.4 WEST SIDE BOYS 58

4.5 EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES 67

4.6 ROLE OF FEMALE COMBATANTS 71

5.0 CONCLUSION 80

5.1 FINDINGS 80

5.2 QUESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 83

5.3 LIMITATIONS 86

5.4 FINAL COMMENTS 90

6.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY 92

LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS

TABLE 1: COMBATANT GROUPS OVERVIEW 31

TABLE 2: REVOLUTIONARY UNITED FRONT OVERVIEW 31

TABLE 3: CIVIL DEFENSE FORCES/KAMAJORS OVERVIEW 44

TABLE 4: ARMED FORCES REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL OVERVIEW 53

TABLE 5: WEST SIDE BOYS OVERVIEW 59

TABLE 6: EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES OVERVIEW 67

GRAPH 1: REVOLUTIONARY UNITED FRONT SVAC SCORES 32

GRAPH 2: CIVIL DEFENSE FORCES SVAC SCORES 44

GRAPH 3: KAMAJORS SVAC SCORES 45

GRAPH 4: ARMED FORCES REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL SVAC SCORES 53

GRAPH 5: WEST SIDE BOYS SVAC SCORES 59

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	International Studies
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Political Science, General Political Science, International Relations
Keyword	Sierra Leone Sexual Violence Patriarchy
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Reiter, Dan, Emory University
Committee Members	Stolley, Karen, Emory University Reingold, Beth, Emory University

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