Wednesday, 27 April, 2011
Explaining Sexual Violence during Civil War: Evidence from Sierra Leone (1991-2002)
Dara Kay Cohen
Assistant Professor
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
Time and Location: 12:00pm, 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI
Drawing on over 200 original interviews collected during six months of fieldwork in Sierra Leone, as well as a newly available survey data, Cohen argues that armed groups with low levels of internal cohesion turned to costly forms of group violence, such as gang rape, in order to create and maintain coherent fighting units.