Publications | Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

We are proud to be the 2023 recipients of the J. David Singer Data Innovation Award from the Conflict Processes section of the American Political Science Association, which recognizes data projects that contribute to the enterprise of systematic data collection on conflict through their impact and innovation.

Nearly 50 peer-reviewed publications in top political science and economics journals have used the SVAC dataset (as of January 2025):

Roy, Chhandosi and Mehwish Sarwari. 2025. “At All Costs: How Relative Rebel Strength Affects PGM Sexual Violence in Civil Conflict,” Journal of Global Security Studies 10(2).
Prorok, Alyssa, Benjamin Appel, and Shahryar Minhas. 2024. “Understanding the Determinants of ICC Involvement: Legal Mandate and Power Politics,” International Studies Quarterly 68(2): sqae018.
Savun, Burcu, Jessica Stanton, Caroline Hartzell, and Lindsay Reid. “Violence beyond the Battlefield: Civilian Targeting, Sexual Violence, and Women’s Political Empowerment,” Journal of Global Security Studies 9(1): ogae001.
Sawyer, Katherine. 2024. “Sexual Violence Against Men in Civil Conflict,” Political Research Quarterly 77(3): 743-758.
Ju, Changwook. 2024. “Coercive Recruitment and Combatant Socialization: Reanalyzing the Role of Child Soldiering on Conflict-related Sexual Violence,” Foreign Policy Analysis 20(3): orae020.
Schwartz, Jack. 2024. “The Rebel Foreign Fighter Dataset,” Journal of Peace Research 61(5): 891-900.
Brannon, Elizabeth. 2023. “The Election of Former Rebel Women,” Journal of Peace Research.
Johansson, Karin. 2023. “Talk of Shame: Conflict-related Sexual Violence and Bilateral Critique within the United Nations,” Journal of Peace Research 61(3): 429-445.
Lee, Sumin and Andrey Tomashevskiy. 2023. “Punish or Tolerate? State Capacity, Military Oversight, and Wartime Sexual Violence,” International Interactions 49(4): 471-496.
Guarnieri, Eleonora and Ana Tur-Prats. 2023. “Cultural Distance and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 138(3): 1817–1861.
Reeder, Bryce Wesley and Rachel Dicke. 2023. “Peacekeeping Deployments, Intragroup Cohesion, and the Use of Sexual Violence by Armed Non-State Groups,” International Peacekeeping 30(2): 230-258.
Adelaiye, Samaila Oluwatope, Chhandosi Roy, and Mehwish Sarwari, 2023. “Economic Actors as Human Rights Watchers: The Effects of Government Sexual Violence on Foreign Direct Investment,” Foreign Policy Analysis 19(2): orad001.
Ju, Changwook. 2023. “Determinants of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: A Meta-Reanalysis Distinguishing Two Classes of Zero Observations,” International Studies Quarterly 67(3), sqad044.
Broache, Michael P. and Juhi Kore. 2023. “Can the International Criminal Court Prevent Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict?” Journal of Human Rights 22:1: 78-93.
Soules, Michael J. 2023. “Recruiting Rebels: Introducing the Rebel Appeals and Incentives Dataset.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 67(9): 1811-1837.
Faulker, Christopher and Blair Welsh. 2022. “Rebel Child Soldiering and Conflict-related Sexual Violence,” International Studies Quarterly 66(4), sqac073.
Overton, Kathryn and Sally Sharif. 2022. “Agents with Principles? Preventing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence with Human Rights Laws and Norms,” Human Rights Quarterly 45(3): 487-512.
Comstock, Audrey. 2022. “The UN voluntary compact and peacekeeping abuse: assessing a soft law solution for sexual exploitation and abuse,” International Journal of Human Rights 27(3): 471-497.
Wieselgren, Herman. 2022. “Sexual Violence along Ethnic Lines? Revisiting Rebel-Civilian Ethnic Ties and Wartime Sexual Violence,” International Interactions 48(6): 1216-1232.
Narang, Neil and Yanjun Liu. 2022. “Does Female Ratio Balancing Influence the Efficacy of Peacekeeping Units? Exploring the Impact of Female Peacekeepers on Post-conflict Outcomes and Behavior.” International Interactions 48(2): 173-203.
Dumaine, Logan, Ragnhild Nordås, Maria Gargiulo, and Elisabeth Jean Wood. 2022. “Repertoires of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research 59(4): 611-621.
Binningsbø, Helga Malmin and Ragnhild Nordås. 2022. “Conflict-related Sexual Violence and the Perils of Impunity.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 66(6): 1066-1090.
Willis, Christopher P. 2021. “Sexual Violence by the State: The Role of Political Institutions in Sexual Violence Perpetration.” International Studies Quarterly 65(3): 768-781.
Sawyer, Katherine, Kanisha D. Bond, and Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham. 2021. “Rebel Leader Ascension and Wartime Sexual Violence.” Journal of Politics 83(1): 396–400.
Sarwari, Mehwish. 2021. “Impact of Rebel Group Ideology on Wartime Sexual Violence.” Journal of Global Security Studies 6(2).
Duursma, Allard and Feike Fliervoet. 2021. “Fueling Factionalism? The Impact of Peace Processes on Rebel Group Fragmentation in Civil Wars.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 65(4): 788-812.
Asal, Victor and Robert Ulrich Nagel. 2021. “Control over Bodies and Territories: Insurgent Territorial Control and Sexual Violence” Security Studies 30(1): 136-158.
Nagel, Robert U. 2021. “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Re-Escalation of Lethal Violence.” International Studies Quarterly 65(1): 56–68.
- - Recipient of the 2019 Cedric Smith Prize of the Conflict Research Society
Doctor, Austin C. 2021. “Foreign Fighters and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.” International Studies Quarterly 65(1): 69–81.
Nagel, Robert U. and Austin C. Doctor. 2020. “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Rebel Group Fragmentation.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 64(7-8): 1226-1253.
- - Recipient of the 2020 Dina Zinnes Award of the International Studies Association, SSIP section
Krüger, Jule and Ragnhild Nordås. 2020. “A Latent Variable Approach to Measuring Wartime Sexual Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 57(6): 728-739.
Tidblad-Lundholm, Kajsa. 2020. “When are Women Deployed? Operational Uncertainty and Deployment of Female Personnel to UN Peacekeeping.” International Peacekeeping 27(4): 673-702.
Sarwari, Mehwish. 2020. “Ideology and UN Responsiveness to Sexual Violence” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 14(5): 671-690.
Agerberg, Mattias and Anne-Kathrin Kreft. 2020. “Gendered Conflict, Gendered Outcomes: The Politicization of Sexual Violence and Quota Adoption.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 64(2-3): 290-317.
Benson, Michelle and Theodora-Ismene Gizelis. 2020. “A Gendered Imperative: Does Sexual Violence Attract UN Attention in Civil Wars?” Journal of Conflict Resolution 64(1): 167-198.
Whitaker, Beth Elise, James Igoe Walsh, and Justin M. Conrad. 2019. “Natural Resource Exploitation and Sexual Violence by Rebel Groups.” Journal of Politics 81(2): 702–706.
Kirschner, Shanna and Adam Miller. 2019. “Does Peacekeeping Really Bring Peace? Peacekeepers and Combatant-perpetrated Sexual Violence in Civil Wars.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 63(9): 2043-2070.
Nagel, Robert Ulrich. 2019. “Talking to the shameless? Sexual violence and mediation in Intrastate Conflicts.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 63(8): 1832-1859.
Johansson, Karin and Lisa Hultman. 2019. “UN Peacekeeping and Protection from Sexual Violence.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 63(7): 1656-1681.
Johansson, Karin and Mehwish Sarwari. 2019. “Sexual Violence and Biased Military Interventions in Civil Conflict.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 36(5): 469-493.
Kreft, Anne-Kathrin. 2018. “Responding to Sexual Violence: Women’s Mobilization in War.” Journal of Peace Research 56(2): 220-233.
Chu, Tiffany and Jessica Maves Braithwaite. 2018. “The Effect of Sexual Violence on Negotiated Outcomes in Civil Conflicts.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 35(3): 233–247.
Hultman, Lisa and Karin Johansson. 2017. “Responding to Wartime Sexual Violence: UN Peacekeeping and the Protection Agenda.” Global Responsibility to Protect 9(2): 129-46.
Kreutz, Joakim and Magda Cardenas. 2017. “Women, Peace and Intervention: How the International Community Responds to Sexual Violence in Civil Conflict.” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 23(3): 260-276.
Cohen, Dara Kay and Ragnhild Nordås. 2015. “Do States Delegate Shameful Violence to Militias? Patterns of Sexual Violence in Recent Armed Conflicts.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 59(5): 877-898.
Cohen, Dara Kay and Ragnhild Nordås. 2014. “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Introducing the SVAC dataset, 1989–2009.” Journal of Peace Research 51(3): 418-428.