A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND? : A Quantitative Study on The Effect of Diamond Extortion on Sexual Violence

Abstract: Sexual violence has been a considered tragic yet inevitable part of most armed conflicts throughout history. Various connections have been made between natural resources and conflict-related sexual violence and this paper aims to explore this relationship further. This study uses theory on lootable natural resources and sexual violence to hypothesize that lootable natural resources, compared to unlootable, will affect the likelihood of sexual violence. The proposed hypothesis is that rebels who extort alluvial diamonds, a lootable resource, are more likely to engage in sexual violence. Using data from the SVAC and the RCD datasets, the hypothesis is tested through logistic regression. The empirical analysis show that the effect of diamond extortion is indeed statistically significant, which supports the hypothesis. These results contribute to finding possible predictors of conflict-related sexual violence, to help prevent further victims of this violence.