Sanctioned violations: mass rape as a strategy of war in the twentieth century

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the use of mass rape in war, specifically its causes. I approach the topic using two documented case studies: the Japanese military during World War II in the 1930s and 1940s and Serbian forces during the fall of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. These militaries operated systems of mass rape that were structurally quite different, but both systems were organized and institutionalized. Through a comparison of these two cases I argue that these perpetrators shared significant cultural conditions that contributed to their decision to use mass rape, but that ultimately their perception of organized mass rape as strategically useful led them to adopt it as a policy.