This project uses a data-driven approach to assess whether Congo deserves the title “Rape Capital of the World. As an aspect of the project, we investigate media coverage of rape globally, in Africa and Congo. It has resulted in co-authored article and will likely result in one more.

This research project problematizes that title by assessing the role of rape in all states and wars in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1980. An early assessment of media reporting and surveys of rape show that Congo may not deserve this title, that its levels of rape before, during and after its most recent conflict are unfortunately on par with levels of rape in Egypt, Liberia and Nigeria.

We question even more recent claims that rape has become a "normal" part of Congolese society, such that rape is no longer a militia-on-civilian phenomenon, but rather has become part of the social fabric of Congolese society, and civilian rape is now more common than before the onset of war.

In assessing the current literature, what is clear is just how weak the data are on rape in general and in Congo in particular. Nevertheless, this weakness in the data has not dissuaded scholars, policy makers, aid and international organizations, and pundits from making big empirical claims. We believe the reason is threefold: first, women tend not to report rape; second, media tend not to be where rape happens (therefore reports about rape tend to be based on rumor and hearsay); and third, the nature of the subject tends to be less open to critical scrutiny for fear of sounding callous to victims of this type of violence.

This project will help assemble much better data and provide better scrutiny of that data for not only the reporting of rape in the media but then how these data compare with existing household surveys and interviews of rape survivors.

On the conceptual and theoretical level, the project will highlight the problems of studying a political/politicized phenomenon as social scientists, and the difficulty with drawing inferences given the poor data.

And finally in policy terms, we will draw attention to the need for funding for better data collection and analysis and highlighting how the inflation of trends of rape may have hampered efforts at reintegration and reconstruction in post-conflict societies.

Partners:

Summer Lindsay, Columbia University