Women As Perpetrators

First published in 1998. A research-based resource for helping professionals dealing with women who were sexually abused by female perpetrators, mainly mothers and grandmothers, this text focuses on the female perpetrator, defining what treatments have been found workable and providing an overview of the available literature. Secondly, the authors share the results from interviews with 85 women adult women survivors. Their journals, poems and artwork have been collated with what the women themselves have found to be both helpful and counterproductive methods of healing. The authors outline intentions and procedures for nonverbal methods of treatment that have proved effective in practice.

Front Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Memory, Body, and Power: Women and the Study of Genocide -- 1. The Gendered Logics of Indigenous Genocide -- 2. Women and the Herero Genocide -- 3. Arshaluys Mardigian/Aurora Mardiganian: Absorption, Stardom, Exploitation, and Empowerment -- 4. "Hyphenated" Identities during the Holodomor: Women and Cannibalism -- 5. Gender: A Crucial Tool in Holocaust Research -- 6. German Women and the Holocaust in the Nazi East -- 7. No Shelter to Cry In: Romani Girls and Responsibility during the Holocaust -- 8. Birangona: Rape Survivors Bearing Witness in War and Peace in Bangladesh -- 9. Very Superstitious: Gendered Punishment in Democratic Kampuchea, 1975-1979 -- 10. Sexual Violence as a Weapon during the Guatemalan Genocide -- 11. Gender and the Military in Post-Genocide Rwanda -- 12. Narratives of Survivors of Srebrenica: How Do They Reconnect to the World? -- 13. The Plight and Fate of Females During and Following the Darfur Genocide -- 14. Grassroots Women's Participation in Addressing Conflict and Genocide: Case Studies from the Middle East North Africa Region and Latin America -- Selected Bibliography: Further Readings -- Index -- Back Cover

This book examines the mobilization, role, and trajectory of women rescuers and perpetrators during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. While much has been written about the victimization of women during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, very little has been said about women who rescued targeted victims or perpetrated crimes against humanity. This book explores and analyzes the role played by women who exercised agency as rescuers and as perpetrators during the genocide in Rwanda. As women, they took actions and decisions within the context of a deeply entrenched patriarchal system that limited their choices. This work examines two diverging paths of women’s agency during this period: to rescue from genocide or to perpetrate genocide. It seeks to answer three questions: First, how were certain Rwandan women mobilized to participate in genocide, and by whom? Second, what were the specific actions of women during this period of violence and upheaval? Finally, what were the trajectories of women rescuers and perpetrators after the genocide? Comparing and contrasting how women rescuers and perpetrators were mobilized, the actions they undertook, and their post-genocide trajectories, and concluding with a broader discussion of the long-term impact of ignoring these women, this book develops a more nuanced and holistic view of women’s agency and the genocide in Rwanda. This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, genocide studies, African politics and critical security studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.routledge.com/Gender-and-the-Genocide-in-Rwanda-Women-as-Rescuers-and-Perpetrators/Brown/p/book/9780367188092, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Chapter 4 of this book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com. This edited collection explores the agency of women who do violence and have violence done to them. Topics covered include rape, pornography, prostitution, suicide bombing and domestic violence. The volume contributes to the philosophical and theoretical debate, as well as offering practical, social and political responses to the issues examined.

This book explores and challenges common assumptions about gender, conflict, and post-conflict situations. It critically examines the gendered aspects of international and transitional justice processes by subverting traditional understandings of how wars are waged, the power dynamics involved, and the experiences of victims. The book also highlights the gendered stereotypes that underpin the (mis)perceptions about gender and war in order to reveal the multi-dimensional nature of modern conflicts and their aftermaths.Featuring contributions from academics in law, criminology, international relations, politics and psychology, as well as legal practitioners in the field, Gender and War offers a unique and multi-disciplinary insight into contemporary understandings of conflict and explores the potential for international and transitional justice processes to evolve in order to better acknowledge diverse and gendered experiences of modern conflicts.This book provides the reader with international and interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of international law, conflict, gender and transitional justice.

This work explores the links between political, economic and social violence and illustrates how local community organizations run and managed by women play a key role throughout conflict situations, not only for meeting basic needs, but also as advocates, fostering trust and collaboration.

The United Nations has called violence against women "the most pervasive, yet least recognized human rights abuse in the world" and there is a long-established history of the systematic victimization of women by the state during times of peace and conflict. This book contributes to the established literature on women, gender and crime and the growing research on state crime and extends the discussion of violence against women to include the role and extent of crime and violence perpetrated by the state. State Crime, Women and Gender examines state-perpetrated violence against women in all its various forms. Drawing on case studies from around the world, patterns of state-perpetrated violence are examined as it relates to women’s victimization, their role as perpetrators, resistors of state violence, as well as their engagement as professionals in the international criminal justice system. From the direct involvement of Condaleeza Rice in the United States-led war on terror, to the women of Egypt’s Arab Spring Uprising, to Afghani poetry as a means to resist state-sanctioned patriarchal control, case examples are used to highlight the pervasive and enduring problem of state-perpetrated violence against women. The exploration of topics that have not previously been addressed in the criminological literature, such as women as perpetrators of state violence and their role as willing consumers who reinforce and replicate the existing state-sanctioned patriarchal status quo, makes State Crime, Women and Gender a must-read for students and scholars engaged in the study of state crime, victimology and feminist criminology.

​Female offenders are often perceived as victims who commit crimes as a self-defense mechanism or as criminal deviants whose actions strayed from typical ‘womanly’ behavior. Such cultural norms for violence exist in our gendered society and there has been scholarly debate about how male and female offenders are perceived and how this perception leads to differential treatment in the criminal justice system. This debate is primarily based upon theories associated with stereotypes and social norms and how these prescriptive norms can influence both public and criminal justice response. Scholars in psychology, sociology, and criminology have found that female offenders are perceived differently than male offenders and this ultimately leads to differential treatment in the criminal justice system. This interdisciplinary book provides an evidence based approach of how female offenders are perceived in society and how this translates to differential treatment within the criminal justice system and explores the ramifications of such differences. Quite often perceptions of female offenders are at odds with research findings. This book will provide a comprehensive evidence-based review of the research that is valuable to laypersons, researchers, practitioners, advocates, treatment providers, lawyers, judges, and anyone interested in equality in the criminal justice system. ​

Why would anyone commit a mass atrocity such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, or terrorism? This question is at the core of the multi- and interdisciplinary field of perpetrator studies, a developing field which this book assesses in its full breadth for the first time. Perpetrators of International Crimes analyses the most prominent theories, methods, and evidence to determine what we know, what we think we know, as well as the ethical implications of gathering this knowledge. It traces the development of perpetrator studies whilst pushing the boundaries of this emerging field. The book includes contributions from experts from a wide array of disciplines, including criminology, history, law, sociology, psychology, political science, religious studies, and anthropology. They cover numerous case studies, including prominent ones such as Nazi Germany, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia, but also those that are relatively under researched and more recent, such as Sri Lanka and the Islamic State. These have been investigated through various research methods, including but not limited to, trial observations and interviews.

This courageous and powerful book is a first step in addressing the secrecy, distress, anger, and fear surrounding female sexual abuse of children. Refuting the rationales for our lack of attention to the problem and contradicting some commonly held beliefs about sexual abuse, it combines accounts from survivors with input from professionals working with both survivors and abusers. Part I presents contributions from professionals who discuss aspects of female sexual abuse ranging from impact and treatment issues for victims of childhood sexual abuse by female perpetrators to the paradox of women who sexually abuse children. The second part is devoted to survivors--it presents stories from both men and women, then provides self-help guidelines for both. The book concludes with a valuable section on resources which includes a review of the existing literature on female child molestation as well as a listing of pertinent books and help organizations. FEMALE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN also addresses the controversial issue of current statistics that show that female sexual abuse is very rare and the question of whether it is being underreported due to fear from survivors that they will not be believed or supported. Regardless of the true magnitude of this problem, secrecy or denial about any aspect of child abuse must be avoided. Whatever future studies may show about this problem, it will not diminish this book's importance in taking the step of exploring this issue.