Gendered Genocide: The Socially Destructive Process of Genocidal Rape, Killing, and Displacement in Darfur. Issue 1 (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kaiser, Joshua; Hagan, John
• Is Part Of: Law & society review. Volume 49:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 69
• Page End: 107
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: Sociological jurisprudence -- Periodicals; Droit; Société; Sociologie du droit; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 340.11505
• DOI: 10.1111/lasr.12122
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0023-9216

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Accounts of mass atrocities habitually focus on one kind of violence and its archetypal victim, inviting uncritical, ungendered misconceptions: for example, rape only impacts women; genocide is only about dead, battle‐aged men. We approach collective violence as multiple, intersecting forms of victimization, targeted and experienced through differential social identities, and translated throughout communities. Through mixed‐method analyses of Darfuri refugees' testimonies, we show (<italic>a</italic>) <italic>gendered causes</italic> and <italic>collective effects</italic> of selective killing, sexual violence, and anti‐livelihood crimes, (<italic>b</italic>) how they <italic>cause</italic> displacement, (<italic>c</italic>) that they <italic>can be</italic> genocidal and empirically distinct from nongenocidal forms, (<italic>d</italic>) <italic>how</italic> the process of genocidal social destruction can work, and (<italic>e</italic>) how it <italic>does</italic> work in Darfur. Darfuris are victimized through gender roles, yielding a gendered meaning‐making process that communicates socially destructive messages through crimes that selectively target other genders. The collective result is displacement and destruction of Darfuris' ways of life: genocide.</p> </abstract>