Is wartime rape inevitable? No, says SFI External Proffessor Libby Wood, who notes that 64 percent of armed-conflict actors in Africa do not engage in rape.
She also notes that armies in many conflicts do not employ rape even when their opponents use it strategically over many years, suggesting that systematic rape and torture are avoidable.
Wood reviews the data from her own and others' research of wartime violence and rape and suggests that by understanding what factors lead to either the strategy or practice of rape, we might be able to offer methods for systematically avoiding rape during wartime.
Read the article in AlJazeera (February 24, 2014)
Hear Wood's interview on the Santa Fe Radio Cafe (September 30, 2014)