The Silent Victims of Sexual Violence During War: Evidence from a List Experiment in Sri Lanka

Traunmüller, Richard; Kijewski, Sara; Freitag, Markus (2019). The Silent Victims of Sexual Violence During War: Evidence from a List Experiment in Sri Lanka. Journal of conflict resolution, 63(9), pp. 2015-2042. Sage 10.1177/0022002719828053

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Sexual violence is believed to be widespread during war. Yet empirical evidence concerning its prevalence is often limited. Victims, out of feelings of shame or fear, underreport this form of violence. We tackle this problem by administering a list experiment in a representative survey in Sri Lanka, which is only recently recovering from an ethnic civil war between Sinhalese and Tamils. This unobtrusive method reveals that around 13 percent of the Sri Lankan population has personally experienced sexual assault during the war—a prevalence ten times higher than elicited by direct questioning. We also identify vulnerable groups: Tamils who have collaborated with rebel groups and the male-displaced population suspected of collaboration with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Our experimental evidence thus lends support to reports on the asymmetric use of sexual violence by government forces, qualifies conventional wisdom on sexual violence during war, and has important implications for policy.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science

UniBE Contributor:

Traunmüller, Richard, Kijewski, Sara Kristine Riihonen, Freitag, Markus

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science

ISSN:

0022-0027

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Alina Zumbrunn

Date Deposited:

25 Jun 2019 07:42

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:27

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/0022002719828053

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.128716

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/128716

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