Lec 9 - Collective Sexual Violence

Question 1

What is the relation between sexual violence and within the military?

Answer 1

Within military sexual violence
*29% of incarcerated active service members convicted for sexual assault
*25% of veterans in prison is sex offender
*Women in the military more likely to suffer sexual assault than civilian women
-Major cause of higher PTSD rates than men in the military
*High conviction rates, but lower than other military crimes

Question 2

What are the types of sexual violence by the military against civiolans

Answer 2

*Types
-Sexual violence against civilians
-Violence in commercial sex industry around overseas bases
-Sexualized torture
-Military domestic violence rates five times higher than average
*Negative impact of military rape on relations with non-combatants (Brownmiller 1973)

Question 3

What is the traditional scholarly views on GBV in the military?

Answer 3

*Madeline Morris (1995)
-Military rejects proposals for change that criticize
violence and hierarchy as causes of sexual violence
-GBV and sexual violence minimized
-“Masculinist military identity” and “rape-conducive” culture
- Complicity in state exploitation of women
- Rape was suppressed much less than nonsexual military crimes

Elizabeth Hillman
Increased integration of women into armed forces
- Made military rape a threat to morale and effectivenes

Military sexual violence central to
military legal precedent

• Counter to idea that the army refuses to act against sexual violence
• Changes in military rape law: from “utmost resistance” to “constructive” (wider spectrum)

Question 4

What are the institutional factors faciliting GBV in the military?

Answer 4

1. Institutional Culture
   Reluctance to prioritize solidarity with rape victim above loyalty to comrade-in-arms
2. Hierarchy and genedered power differentials
   Reporting can be interpreted as disloyal
3. Labor conditions
   Remoteness of some military operations: complicates prosecution
   College-like atmosphere of military academies
4. Traditional Gender norms
   - Socialization of recruits
   - Commanding officers’ tendency to underestimate significance of sex crime
   - Male victims underreport because of shame and fear of investigation into sexual orientation

Question 5

What is DADT?

Answer 5

DADT (1994-2011)
*Prohibits people who
“demonstrate a propensity or
intent to engage in homosexual
acts” from serving in the
US army
*Because their presence “would
create an unacceptable risk to
the high standards of morale,
good order and discipline, and
unit cohesion that are the
essence of military capability”

Question 6

What is the role of race in sexual violence (institutions)

Answer 6

Racist assumptions about sexual predators inform policy
*Black service members more often prosecuted and punished harshly
-Despite lack of evidence that they are more likely to commit such crimes

*“Good victim:” rape of white women more likely to lead to conviction of perpetrat

Question 7

Explain intersectionality and rape during war

Answer 7

Sex central to the Liberation (WWII)
*Why did 25 out of 29 death sentences for rape during the Liberation period concern Black men?
-France’s colonial history:
“the French and the Americans became
deadly allies in racism” (p. 197); stereotype of
Black soldier as
sexually threatening
-Women’s stories more often questioned for White soldiers (viewed
as prostitutes rather than victims); almost never for Black soldiers;
racism trumped sexism in rape cases
-Popular stereotype among American soldiers of France as more
tolerant let to misunderstandings
-Strategy by army officials: presenting rape as a minority crime
prevented undermining American authority in Fran

Question 8

What are the Institutional factors facilitating GBV in religous groups?

Answer 8

• Institutional Culture
• Use of sacrament of confessional to bind victims to silence
• Parents’s trust
• Hierarchy and gendered power differentials
• Preoccupation of keeping up an image of moral perfect
• Commitment to avoiding scandal
• Labor Conditions
  Reassigning priests to new parishes that were ignorant of the priest’s his
• Traditional gender norms
  Celibacy (Scheper-Hughes and Devine 2003)

Question 9

What are the Institutional factors facilitating sexual violence in the cultural sector

Answer 9

*Competition for work
*Industry culture
*Gendered power relations
*Importance of informal networks

Question 10

What are the Policy takeaways of the Gender Based Violence lecture

Answer 10

*Institutional culture
-Consider occupational cultures and specificities
-Requires broad interpretation of workplace harassment and violence: beyond the office
*Hierarchy and gendered power differentials
-Power differentials decrease likelihood of reporting and increases likelihood of GBV
*Labor conditions
-“Uberization:” workers increasingly do not work for a single organization
*Traditional gender norms

*Consider these factors for violence prevention beyond GBV?

Question 11

What are Liberal/Radical approaches to prevention of GBV?

Answer 11

Liberal
*Individual central: GBV as an individual
-level problem
*Equalizing opportunities and victim support procedures
*Bystander/leadership/awareness training

Radical
*Collective central: social and organizational structure
*Power inequalities
*Decrease organizational inequalities, temporal and precarious contracts, dependence relations