The focus in this project is to study the male perpetration of sexual violence in war. The focus will be on the male perpetrators themselves and how they view their actions in hindsight and in light of their punishment. By extension, the project will also focus on the ways in which male perpetrators of sexual violence are situated and perceived within a supranational legal context and the perpetrators’ reasoning for committing acts of sexual violence in the war setting.
The empirical focus is on male perpetrators of sexual violence during the Bosnian war from 1992-1995, and more specifically the 28 perpetrators who have been sentenced in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The overarching aim will accordingly be to classify a body of empirical data - primarily court records and interviews – in light of current social psychological and gender theories. In order to study this overarching theme, it is imperative to consider how social narratives and individual identity construction interact with the discourses of gender and memories of the Bosnian war at large. The primary research methods will be literature studies and interviews. The project will investigate:
The primary output of this project will be a monograph for international publication with the title Why Rape? The project will start in January 2009 and end in December 2012.
Presentation of the postdoc project entitled: Why Rape? Perpetrators, Punishment and Social Narratives. Funded by the Norwegian Research Council, Program for Kjønnsforskning
Book Chapter in Understanding and Proving International Sex Crimes
Journal Article in Global Responsibility to Protect
Popular Article in Dagbladet
Popular Article in UNICEF Magasinet
Popular Article in Dagbladet
Journal Article in International Feminist Journal of Politics
Journal Article in Sociologi i dag