Silencing State-Sponsored Rape in and beyond a Transnational Guatemalan Community

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1153-1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Hastings
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Rape Survivors ◽  
Cultural Ideologies ◽  
Rape In War

Although rape by soldiers occurred frequently during the recent civil war in Guatemala, rape survivors’ own accounts have been excluded from public testimonials of state violence. It is commonly assumed that cultural ideologies that blame and stigmatize rape victims are responsible for the underreporting of rape in war. Based on ethnographic research in a transnational Guatemalan community, this article challenges the claim that local culture silences survivors of state-sponsored rape. Rather, it demonstrates the ways national and international forces collude in the depoliticization of rape and the silencing of rape survivors.

What's in a name?: Predicting rape-related perceptions of and support for "rape victims," "rape survivors," and "women who have been raped"

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jericho Mariette Hockett ◽  
Megan Strain ◽  
Samantha McGraw ◽  
Lora McGraw ◽  
Don Saucier
Keyword(s):  
Rape Victims ◽  
Rape Survivors

Commentary Hidden Injuries of Research on Social Suffering Among Drug Users

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janie Simmons ◽  
Kim Koester
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Emotional Difficulties ◽  
Social Suffering ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Forced Prostitution ◽  
Parallel Reactions

Ethnographic research with impoverished, often homeless, street drug users commonly involves the direct and indirect witnessing of various kinds of violence. Numerous methodological and ethical challenges related to the witnessing of violence have been explored in the ethnographic literature on drug use. In addition, drug-use researchers like Bourgois and Inciardi have written, at least tangentially, about the myriad emotions that come into play when especially egregious forms of interpersonal violence, such as rape, forced prostitution or gang initiations, are described by perpetrators or victims. Apart from experiencing a range of emotions, other researchers have made note of emotional difficulties experienced by researchers studying violence. For example, Dunn described the physical and emotional problems she experienced after interviewing women who had been battered. Alexander and colleagues reported parallel reactions in rape victims and rape researchers. In this paper, we draw upon our own experience as ethnographers in order to raise concerns about the emotional risks of witnessing accounts of past and current violence in the lives of street drug users who are participants in our research projects.

Women in Somalia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safia Aidid
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Somali Women ◽  
Education And Employment ◽  
The Military ◽  
Life Roles

Although Somali women have played a dynamic and important role in the making of Somalia’s history, their histories have been obscured by archival limitations and androcentric scholarship. Women in traditional Somali society—pastoralists, agriculturalists, and urbanites alike—were central to their communities for their reproductive and productive labor. They embodied social capital, as the practice of exogamous marriage that brought them to other communities also created important reciprocal relations between different kinship groups. Although a deeply patriarchal culture defined their life roles primarily as wives and mothers, Somali women used that very culture and the indigenous resources available to them to exercise agency, negotiate their positions, and carve out their own spaces. The advent of colonial rule, which partitioned the Somali peninsula between Britain, France, Italy, and the Ethiopian empire, drastically altered women’s lives. It fused traditional patriarchal relations with European ones, codified tradition and flexible communal identities, treated women as dependents of their male relatives, and created opportunities for men in education and employment that were not available to women. Though Somali women were at the forefront of the anticolonial struggle, the male elite who inherited the state after independence excluded women from the political sphere. Women’s rights took on a prominent role in the military dictatorship of General Mohamed Siad Barre, yet the repression and state violence that characterized his rule affected women acutely. The civil war that followed the disintegration of the Somali state has similarly affected women intimately. In addition to the gendered experience of violence, the increasingly conservative nature of Somali society has resulted in the loss of many gains made for women’s rights after independence. From precolonial society to colonial rule, dictatorship, and civil war, Somali women have exhibited the resilience, agency, and fortitude to make the most of their circumstances.

scholarly journals OUR DEAD CAN SPEAK: SOCIAL DISPLACEMENTS, AFFECTS, AND POLITICAL ACTION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Sanjurjo
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Political Action ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
The Face

Abstract Grounded in ethnographic research with activist organisations-families of the victims of state violence in Argentina and Brazil-this article seeks to critically reflect on the relationships between gender, kinship, and the politics and social practice of memory, together with devices for the management of life and social order in specific ethnographic situations. Using a comparative approach, the article argues that relationships established between these groups enable the construction of shared strategies of political action and the production of shared meanings in the face of overlapping confrontations with inequalities and violence. The central problematic questions how the these activists’ displacements (often transnational) disseminate practices, skills, experiences, and repertoires of political mobilisation that compose a field of action directed towards the construction of memories, the rendering visible of victims, and the denunciation of previous regimes of selectively perpetrated violence.

Explaining State Violence in the Guatemalan Civil War: Rebel Threat and Counterinsurgency

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-71
Author(s):  
Yuichi Kubota
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Propensity Score ◽  
Propensity Score Matching ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Response Model ◽  
The Government ◽  
Guatemalan Civil War ◽  
Human Injury

AbstractLiterature on the Guatemalan Civil War has debated whether or not state violence was triggered by rebel activities. Did the government respond to each insurrection caused by the rebels, or did it blindly target regions where antigovernment antipathy and movements had historically prevailed? Because state violence was extensive during the civil war period, the dynamism of the war could have been the reason for its occurrence. Relying on the threat-response model of state violence, this article argues that human rights violations occurred when the government perceived a rebel threat that would have seriously degraded its capability in future counterinsurgencies. The article employs propensity score matching to address the problem of confounding in empirical analysis, and reveals that rebel attacks, particularly those targeting security apparatus and resulting in human injury, increased the likelihood of state violence in the Guatemalan Civil War.

Researching the Provision of Service to Rape Victims by Specially Trained Police Officers: The Influence of Gender––An Exploratory Study

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 688-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Jamel
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Male Rape ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Rape Survivors ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Investigative Technique

The current study of the specialist police response to male rape survivors focused on Sexual Offenses Investigative Technique (SOIT) officers to explore whether a differential level of service is influenced by an officer's and/or victim's gender. Data on both police and male and female rape survivors were comparatively analyzed using the qualitative method of thematic analysis. Key issues that emerged included: (1) Rape victims reported a lack of confidence in the judicial system; this was more apparent in male survivors' responses and was one of the factors that informed their decision whether or not to report their victimization. (2) Both male and female rape victims demonstrate a gender preference for female SOIT officers, which reinforces the historical approach within the police force to encourage females to apply for such positions. Tis practice suggests a reliance on gender stereotypes as heuristics to assess the likelihood of the empathy and sensitivity of the SOIT officer's response. (3) Finally, few male rape victims reported their victimization, and those who did frequently experienced a gendered response that was often negative and could delay their recovery process. Recommendations are also made regarding best practice in SOIT officer training.

Revolutionary Law Abidance: Kachin Rebel Governance and the Adoption of ihl in Resistance to Myanmar State Violence

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 872-904
Author(s):  
Alicia de la Cour Venning
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Field Research ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Rebel Governance ◽  
International Legal System

Although armed opposition actors are increasingly prevalent within contemporary conflicts, ethnographies seeking to understand and explain their relationship with international law are scarce. While scholars highlight the state-centric nature of international law, discussing at length how it privileges state over non-state actors, few examine the way rebels perceive and relate to the international legal system. Drawing on seven months of field research among Kachin civil society and the Kachin Independence Organisation / Army (kio/A), this article demonstrates how the kio/A’s nascent engagement with international law is being strategically pursued as part of a broader rebel governance project. Ethnographic research exposes the oft neglected rebel perspective. It reveals how rebels interact with international humanitarian norms as a means to facilitate and mediate relations with both local and international actors, in an attempt to promote nation building aspirations and thereby strengthen resistance to state violence.

Governing a therapeutic community prison in an age of managerialism

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Community ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Altered Form ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Recent ethnographic research has examined the forces that shape the working lives of prison managers, in particular, the growth of managerialism, pushing in from the outside and the deeply rooted local cultures that exist within. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the interplay of these forces in the context of a therapeutic community (TC) prison. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws upon ethnographic research conducted in two prisons and expands this using an autoethnographic approach to examine the experience of governing a TC prison. Findings The original study described how the dynamic interaction of globalised change and local culture created gave rise to “prison managerialism”. This notion reflects the negotiation between the global managerialism and local occupational culture. This concept is equally relevant in a TC prison, albeit it exists in an altered form reflecting the distinct characteristics of the local culture. Research limitations/implications The approach builds upon an ethnographic study, expanding this through autoethnography. This inevitably limits the scope and perspective as it is looking at a specific context. It nevertheless highlights the distinctive challenges of managing a TC prison. Practical implications The work has implications for the management of TC prisons in practice, including human resource management such as recruitment, selection, appraisal and development of those managers. Originality/value The paper applies and revisits a recent in-depth study of prison managers, re-imagining and revising this to reflect the distinct context of managing a TC prison.

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