Wartime sexual violence: Recent research findings and their implications

The report argues that conflict-related sexual violence is not inevitable and varies significantly across armed actors. It highlights a shift toward analyzing 'patterns of violence'—distinguishing between military strategy, organizational policy, and tolerated social practice—while advocating for a more intersectional approach that includes men, boys, and LGBTQIA+ survivors. The authors identify critical gaps in the study of structural root causes and perpetrator motivations, and they caution that traditional policy tools like international prosecutions and state-level sanctions have limited or even counterproductive effects on prevention.

• Conflict-related sexual violence is not an inevitable consequence of war; it varies significantly across armed organizations, with some groups rarely engaging in it even within the same conflict.
• Scholars now distinguish between three distinct logics of sexual violence: military strategy (used as a weapon of war), organizational policy (such as managing the reproductive lives of combatants), and social practice (where violence is not ordered but is tolerated or unpunished by leaders).
• Armed-actor ideology significantly influences patterns of violence; for example, leftist insurgencies often engage in sexual violence less frequently due to ingrained norms of restraint toward civilians.
• Recent research has adopted an intersectional lens, documenting the victimization of previously overlooked groups, including men, boys, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
• There is a lack of systematic empirical cross-case analysis regarding the structural root causes of conflict-related sexual violence, with patriarchy serving as a necessary background factor but not a sufficient explanation for variation between groups.
• Evidence suggests that International Criminal Court trials and state trials have weak or inconsistent effects as deterrents for future conflict-related sexual violence.
• While targeted sanctions against individuals are used, research indicates that UN sanctions against states may actually increase the likelihood of state-perpetrated sexual violence during civil wars.

APA

Cohen, D. K., & Wood, E. J. (2025). Wartime sexual violence: Recent research findings and their implications. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/a96665c4-61fa-4c69-8333-0eae86ea5362/MPI Paper 1 Cohen and Wood FINAL updated title.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Cohen, Dara Kay, and Elisabeth Jean Wood. Wartime sexual violence: Recent research findings and their implications. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2025. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/a96665c4-61fa-4c69-8333-0eae86ea5362/MPI Paper 1 Cohen and Wood FINAL updated title.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cohen |first1=Dara Kay |last2=Wood |first2=Elisabeth Jean |title=Wartime sexual violence: Recent research findings and their implications |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=October 2025 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/a96665c4-61fa-4c69-8333-0eae86ea5362/MPI Paper 1 Cohen and Wood FINAL updated title.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cohen2025wartime, author = {Cohen, Dara Kay and Wood, Elisabeth Jean}, title = {{Wartime sexual violence: Recent research findings and their implications}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/a96665c4-61fa-4c69-8333-0eae86ea5362/MPI Paper 1 Cohen and Wood FINAL updated title.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }