Policy of Abuse: A Framework of Public Policy Dimensions Analyzing Systematic Sexual Violence in Bosnia

This dissertation asserts that systematic sexual violence was used as public policy
by the Serbian government in Bosnia during the conflict of 1992-1995 to effect ethnic
cleansing and genocide. Systematic sexual violence must be recognized as public policy
in order for the global community to advance appropriate recommendations regarding the
levels at which (in addition to individuals) institutions, organizations and particularly
governments should be held accountable. Further, when govenm1ents not only fail in
their responsibility to protect citizens but actually commit crimes against citizens,
survivors are betrayed by the very institutions to which they look for protection. Public policy is indelibly linked to the actions of governments. Recognizing systematic sexual
violence as public policy acknowledges the seriousness of that betrayal and is imperative
to foster both personal and social healing. First, the dissertation develops a framework of
policy dimensions consisting of the concepts of government initiation, public interest,
actors and institutions, intent and goals, complicity and sanction, instruments and tools,
and targets. Then, case study methodology is used to investigate records documenting
the case of systematic sexual violence in Bosnia. By comparing the results of those
investigations to the policy framework, the dissertation concludes that in Bosnia in the
1990s, systematic sexual violence was used as public policy. Sexual violence was
systematically perpetrated on a mass scale by government-sanctioned agents, and
administered using governmental organizational mechanisms. By discussing what has
happened and is happening, to whom, and how, we can understand that systematic sexual
violence is being used as a policy, how such a policy may be implemented and what its
goals may be. We can also acknowledge the policy goals-- such as ethnic nationalism,
genocide and ethnic cleansing-- associated with this policy of abuse and view systematic
sexual violence as a critical part of overall concerted strategies to effect those policy
goals.