In the mid 1970s, at the peak of the women’s movement, feminist activism and research opened the door to questions that are still pressing today. While sexual violence has gained public awareness and become a subject in academic debate, efforts to understand and strategies to prevent this form of violence remain inadequate. Who are the perpetrators? How is sexual violence tied to other forms of violence? What are the consequences for individual victims and societies?

Compiled by the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC), this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding wartime sexual violence. Its enquiry employs four key relationships: War/Power, Violence/Sexuality, Gender/Engendering and Visibility/Invisibility. Through these, the authors identify gaps in existing knowledge to develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the field.

This volume is the result of long-standing cooperation. The International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC) is a network of interdisciplinary scholars and NGO experts founded in October 2010. Sociologists, philosophers, historians, literary and legal scholars as well as NGO professionals from Europe, the US, Asia and Africa bring together empirical and theoretical studies focusing on sexual violence in different theatres of armed conflict. The group compares source material and promotes the systematic development of research questions and methods.

GABY ZIPFEL is a Founder of the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC). She is a Senior Researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture in Germany, and was previously an editor of Mittelweg 36, the journal of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. She is also a member of the Eurozine Advisory Board.

REGINA MÜHLHÄUSER is a Senior Researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture and an Associate Researcher at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. She is a Founder of the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’, and has previously worked at the Nazi concentration camp memorial sites in Neuengamme and Ravensbruck.

KIRSTEN CAMPBELL is a Reader in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where she teaches sociology of law and social theory. She is the Principal Investigator of ‘The Gender of Justice’ project, which examines the prosecution of sexual violence in armed conflict under international criminal law, focusing upon the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.