Rape in Armed Conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo A Systematic Review of the Scientific Literature

We conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature between 1996 and 2013 on rape in war-ridden Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to better understand the interest of the scientific community in describing the magnitude and characteristics of the problem. The literature s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trauma, violence & abuse Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 581 - 592
Main Authors: Mpinga, Emmanuel Kabengele, Koya, Mapendo, Hasselgard-Rowe, Jennifer, Jeannot, Emilien, Rehani, Sylvie B., Chastonay, Philippe
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Inc 01.12.2017
SAGE Publications
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Armed forces
Case studies
Communities
Conflict
Consciousness
Crime Victims - psychology
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Female
Health care
Health problems
Health services
Human Rights
Human rights violations
Humans
International community
Literature reviews
Local authorities
Male
Medicine
Military Personnel
Negligence
Perpetrators
Rape
Rape - statistics & numerical data
Review Manuscript
Sapphire
Scientific community
Scientific papers
Subject headings
Systematic review
Victims
Victims of crime
War
War Crimes - statistics & numerical data
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Congo-Democratic Republic of Congo
rape
torture
armed conflict
DR Congo
human rights
ISSN:1524-8380, 1552-8324
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature between 1996 and 2013 on rape in war-ridden Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to better understand the interest of the scientific community in describing the magnitude and characteristics of the problem. The literature search was conducted in French and English using several databases (Pubmed, PsycInfo, Sapphire, BDSP, Embase, Rero, and Web of Science) with the key words “rape and DRC” combined with several Medical Subject Headings concepts. Our systematic review yielded 2,087 references, among which only 27 are original studies, that is 20 are based on population surveys and the remaining 7 are original data based on case studies and reviews. Ten studies provided prevalence rates of rape victims, 18 provided specific information on the profile of the victims, 10 reported that most of the perpetrators of rape were military personnel, 14 referred to the negligence of the government in protecting victims, and 10 reported a lack of competent health-care facilities. The awareness of rape in conflict-ridden DRC is still limited as reported in the scientific literature: Published scientific papers are scarce. Yet more research would probably help mobilize local authorities and the international community against this basic human rights violation.
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ISSN:1524-8380
1552-8324
DOI:10.1177/1524838016650184