ABSTRACT
The rape circumstances in Bosnia-Herzegovina make it once again brutally clear: terror and torture by men against women are not actions of individual pathological perpetrators but instead dealings of ‘normal’ men against women of every age and every origin. Whilst war scenarios are social situations in which violent actions against women are to an exceptional degree legitimated, approved and encouraged, the relationship between the sexes outside of war situations is also ‘to a large degree characterised by men’s violence against women’ (Vranitzky 1992). Because of this, terror against women needs to be understood as a continuum. What degree and what kind of violence men are willing to use depends on internal and external barriers, on social situations and anticipated consequences and finally on social images via the mass media. The normalcy of men’s violence against women is an elementary structural and cultural element of a patriarchal society.
