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Gender and Violence in Haiti: Women’s Path from Victims to Agents

Authored by: Benedetta Faedi Duramy

Categories: Humanitarian Emergencies, Violent Conflict
Sub-Categories: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)
Country: Haiti
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Year: 2014
Citation: Faedi Duramy, Benedetta. Gender and Violence in Haiti: Women's Path from Victims to Agents. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014.

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Executive Summary

Women in Haiti are frequent victims of sexual violence and armed assault. Yet an astonishing proportion of these victims also act as perpetrators of violent crime, often as part of armed groups. Award-winning legal scholar Benedetta Faedi Duramy visited Haiti to discover what causes these women to act in such destructive ways and what might be done to stop this tragic cycle of violence.

Gender and Violence in Haiti is the product of more than a year of extensive firsthand observations and interviews with the women who have been caught up in the widespread violence plaguing Haiti. Drawing from the experiences of a diverse group of Haitian women, Faedi Duramy finds that both the victims and perpetrators of violence share a common sense of anger and desperation. Untangling the many factors that cause these women to commit violence, from self-defense to revenge, she identifies concrete measures that can lead them to feel vindicated and protected by their communities.