11:20 - 13:00
P12-S293
Room: -1.A.03
Chair/s:
Rebecca Cordell
Discussant/s:
Rebecca Cordell, Melissa Pavlik
Wartime sexual violence and inter-group trust: Evidence from Bosnia-Herzegovina
P12-S293-3
Presented by: Alina Greiner-Filsinger
Alina Greiner-Filsinger 1, Max Schaub 2, Ajla Henic Sarajlic 2
1 University of Mannheim
2 University of Hamburg
What is the effect of wartime sexual violence on gendered and ethnic trust? It has been widely acknowledged that sexual violence is a distinct form of war-related violence with particularly detrimental effects beyond the crime itself. Sexual violence moreover constitutes a severe trust violation. Understanding the persistent effects of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) on social trust is therefore highly relevant in the context of post-war reconciliation. Our objective is to add to the ongoing debate in the literature how conflicts characterized by a process of ethnicization might differently shape ethnic in-group and out-group trust. Moreover, we want to shed light on how exposure to CRSV shapes trust in the same vs. the opposite sex. Although sexual violence targets a person's gendered identity like no other form of violence, sex has been largely neglected as marker for trustworthiness in previous literature. Original representative survey data (N=3,000) collected in Bosnia-Herzegovina from September--December 2024 allows us to systematically analyze our research question. To address issues of social desirability bias, we rely on a conjoint experiment that allows us to contrast the importance of ethnicity and sex in trust decisions. Furthermore, our multi-generational survey allows us to investigate mechanisms of family and community transmission of social trust.
Keywords: Sexual violence, social trust, ethnic conflict, intergenerational transmission

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