Conflict-related sexual violence: What have we learned over the last decade?

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) has attracted significant attention from policy-makers, practitioners and the public over the past two decades, but it continues to occur in conflicts around the world – in some places, on a massive scale. Research on CRSV has also grown remarkably in recent years. This article assesses the state of the scholarly literature on CRSV. It first reviews advances in the field, including the widespread recognition of variation in CRSV, the power of mapping the complete pattern of violence (repertoire, targeting, estimated frequency), and the importance of distinguishing between CRSV that occurs as a policy (either a military strategy or a policy for non-military purposes, often the management of the sexual and reproductive lives of combatants) and CRSV that occurs as a practice (in which sexual violence is driven by social dynamics among combatants and is tolerated by commanders). It then highlights emergent themes, including intersectional approaches to studying survivors, victims who did not survive, and their communities, as well as perpetrators, and ongoing debates, including how gender hierarchies and norms shape CRSV. It identifies persistent gaps in scholarly understanding of causes and consequences, along with opportunities for deepening that understanding. After discussing the implications for policy to address CRSV, the article concludes by laying out some lingering questions for future research.