Replication data for: When the Stick Fails to Work: The Effects of Sanctions on Government Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

Are sanctions effective in reducing government sexual violence? In recent years, states and international organizations have started to impose sanctions against states that are reported to commit crimes of sexual violence. Some bodies, including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), have even adopted sexual and gender-based violence as a designation criteria for sanctions. While anecdotal evidence shows that sanctions are imposed to punish actors that participate in these crimes, are they actually effective in doing so? We argue that the decline in resources encountered by sanctioned targets does not deter them from using sexual violence, but rather, creates an incentive to perpetrate or tolerate sexual violence to makeup for their financial and military losses. Using existing sanctions data and original data on sanctions that refer to government conflict-related sexual violence, this study tests the impact of military and economic sanctions on sexual violence by state forces in civil conflicts during the period of 1989 to 2012. Findings support the study’s claims and show that government sexual violence is more likely if states are subject to sanctions, including ones that have a clear objective of reducing conflict-related sexual violence.