I’m excited to be presenting my first papers on genocide at this year’s American Society of Criminology conference. Both papers will be presented in roundtable format:
“Media Reports of War Rape: The Rwandan Genocide”.
The United States has been criticized by Samantha Power and others for refusing to intervene in genocidal incidents. Typically, there is little public support for such intervention in the U.S. and some claim the American media avoids publishing stories of genocide. In addition, while rape is a frequent occurrence in genocidal events it may not be accurately reported in the United States. In this paper, we analyze media accounts of rape during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and determine whether U.S. media outlets avoided reporting of “rape” and “sexual assault” as compared to European media outlets and reports from humanitarian advocacy groups.
“War Rape and Prison Rape: Theoretical Perspectives”, with Tazin Karim (Anthropology doctoral student, Michigan State University.
From ethnic cleansing to the torture of political prisoners, sexual violence is by far one of the most atrocious, yet least understood acts of war. While the use of sexual violence during times of unrest dates back to the early antiquity; modern conflicts in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur have raised timely questions as to the origins and manifestations of these acts. Some argue that sexual violence during war—particularly sexual violence against men—is situational, and occurs during times when the normal constraints against rape are lifted. In this paper, we review theories of war rape and male rape and determine whether these perspectives can provide insight into another form of situational male rape—rape in prison.
