From Violence against Women to Women’s Violence in Haiti

Much of the current scholarship, as well as international policy studies focusing on civil conflicts and armed violence, has primarily construed women as victims and men as perpetrators of violence. Although this prevalent interpretation certainly reflects conventional wisdom and tells part of a true war story, the remainder, which has been very much less publicized and addressed, also perceives women as participants in violence and men occasionally as victims. This Article joins the chorus of scholars that have only recently begun to highlight the flaws of this common belief and conversely, describe female participation in conflict and armed violence, often in order to discover a convincing explanation for why women engage in violence. This Article goes even further in seeking to deepen the understanding of why women and girls, living in the slum communities of Haiti, participate in violence, by looking at the specific nexus between their prior victimization through sexual abuse and their ensuing decision to join the armed factions. To be sure, pertinent studies focusing either on violence against women and women's violence, or their reciprocal influences and correlations have already been conducted in several countries torn apart by civil conflict or armed violence. To date, however, this issue has not yet been explored in Haiti, where available data has nonetheless suggested a high prevalence of sexual violence against girls and women as well as their involvement in armed violence. In particular, this study aims to shed light on female internalization of gender stereotypes and experience with violence, which produces common patterns of retaliation. It investigates the incentives, conditions and decision-making processes that motivate victims of rape and sexual abuse to join armed groups and to become active affiliates and perpetrators of violence themselves. Ultimately, by investigating the current international legal norms and Haitian legislation on both female victimization and aggression, this analysis aims to contribute to the design of effective measures to free women from violence, to dispel their anger and resentment towards forms of community reconciliation, and to adequately reintegrate them into society. This empirical research is informed by longitudinal fieldwork conducted over a seven-month period in the three cities of Haiti primarily affected by armed violence: Port-au-Prince, Cap Haitian and Gonaive. This research design included in-depth face-to-face interviews, focus groups and participant observation involving a heterogeneous sample of informants comprised of: women, who have either been victims of violence or who have been members of armed groups; and representatives of international and national institutions or civil society organizations working on resolving the issues of women and armed violence in Haiti. The remainder of the Article proceeds as follows. In Section I, the Author summarizes the historical and social context for gender-based violence and female violence in Haiti. In Section II, the Author reviews the current literature on female participation in conflict and armed violence as well as on the victimization-offending nexus. In Section III, the Author explains the research methods and data sources adopted for the study. In Section IV, the Author presents empirical evidence from Haiti on women's experiences with violence--either as victims or as perpetrators--and examines the conditions and rationale that motivate them to become involved with the armed groups. In Section IV, the Author suggests relevant implications for legal and policy interventions by considering the following: the main international legal norms protecting women and girls from sexual violence in conflict settings and addressing their consequent involvement in violence; the Haitian legal regime designed for the protection of victims of sexual violence, on the one hand, and the prosecution of girls and women associated with the gangs, on the other hand; and the current specific programs aimed at reintegrating female participants of armed and community violence into society. …