ABSTRACT
One of the central characteristics of the crime of genocide is widespread sexualized and gender-based violence. Not limited to rape, sexualized and gender-based violence characterizes the vast majority of crimes committed by perpetrators, so much so that we can charac terize genocide as a pornographic process. More and more research is demonstrating that it is difficult to understand the crime without taking gender-based violence into consideration: biological sex and cultural beliefs about gender roles determine much about perpetrator ideology, patterns of attack, responses of victim communities, and the consequences of genocidal violence over the long term. Sexualized violence (violence that involves sexual organs and what are commonly considered to be sex acts and sexual behaviors) during genocide is, therefore, part of a much broader pattern of gender-based strategies employed by perpetrators to destroy a group. Post-genocide societies must struggle with the consequences of widespread sexualized violence in a social context (loss, displacement, poverty) that itself exacerbates gender-based violence.
