Critique of the Text: Tragic Incidences - Weapons Use, Compulsory Enlistment, and Sexual Assault
In her book, "Rape during Civil War," Dara Kay Cohen offers a comprehensive and detailed study on the causes of gang rapes of women in civil wars. The book, which is based on a quantitative study of 91 civil wars from 1980 to 2012 and three case studies (Sierra Leone, El Salvador, and Timor Leste), provides a robust collection of empirical evidence.
Cohen's theory of combatant socialization suggests that groups with low internal social cohesion, often due to forced recruitment, are more likely to commit group rapes. According to her, individual rapes also serve a socialization function among combatants who lack social ties. This theory is compared with explanations based on opportunism, ethnic hatred, and gender inequality.
However, the main challenge of the work is to satisfactorily link the articulation of the premise about the difference between individual and group rapes to the construction of the argument about combatant socialization. Group rape serves the function of increasing social cohesion and communicating norms of masculinity, virility, and strength among combatants of both sexes.
Cohen acknowledges that not all armed groups in combat carry out this type of rape. In fact, it is state actors, not rebel groups, that are indicated as responsible for a greater number of rapes during civil wars. The perpetrators of these rapes are often described as normal people, who do not necessarily experience sexual pleasure from this act.
The author uses data on sexual rapes in general when there are no data or reports on the prevalence of group rapes, a strategy applied in more than 60% of the 59 civil wars with the highest levels of rapes according to the U.S. Department of State country reports. This approach, while necessary due to the lack of specific data, diminishes the importance of the distinction between group and individual rapes, and the centrality of group rapes upon which the argument has been built becomes blurred.
Despite these challenges, Cohen's book provides a wide, detailed, and rigorous discussion of the indicators used in the study. Without a systematic study of group rapes in interstate wars, it is difficult to sustain Cohen's premise that group rapes have distinct characteristics and causes from violence during times of peace. However, by incorporating this argument, Cohen's study offers a significant contribution to the understanding of the complex dynamics of violence during civil wars.
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