One of the most horrendous outcomes of civil wars is wartime rape. The variation in the intensity of wartime rape is the main puzzle in this research. This dissertation is focused on activist insurgencies and builds on the combatant socialization theory. It will investigate how social cohesion in activist insurgencies influences wartime rape. The argument concerns differential resource endowments explaining the variation of sexual violence in activist insurgencies. This paper will use new data and examine the pattern of wartime rape with a new approach. The results of the analysis indicate that activist insurgencies’ means of socialisation depend on available resources. The socialisation of fighters can be achieved through the combatant socialisation process or though political education