By Aleksandra Dier and Gretchen Baldwin

While only a small percentage of men become involved in violent extremism, the majority of violent extremists are men. Across the ideological spectrum, violent extremist and terrorist groups exploit male sentiments of emasculation and loss of power and appeal to ideas of manhood in their recruitment efforts. Yet policymakers rarely focus on gender to help them understand why some men engage in violence and others do not or what role peaceful notions of masculinity play in preventing radicalization and terrorism. Similarly, male-dominated counterterrorism institutions rarely pose the question of how masculinities shape these institutions and their approaches to counterterrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE).

This report discusses masculinities—the socially constructed ideas of what it means to be a man—as they are constructed and used by violent extremist groups, as they exist in and interact with society, and as they interplay with the state. It draws on examples pertaining to both “Islamist” and extreme right-wing terrorism, considering differences not just between but also within these ideologies.

New York: International Peace Institute and UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, 2022. 22p.

By Gretchen Kerr

This book addresses the major forms of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in children’s sport, including sexual, physical, and psychological violence and neglect. It reviews the historical, sociocultural, and political influences on violence towards children, and sets out future agendas for research and practice to eliminate GBV in sport. The book argues that for GBV to occur and be sustained over time, it must be facilitated by a system that enables this violence, protects the perpetrator, disables bystanders, silences the victims, and/or fails to provide a structure by which to address victims’ or bystanders’ concerns. Drawing on empirical research from across a range of disciplines, including sport sociology, sport psychology, developmental psychology, and coaching, and examining real life case studies of GBV in sport at all levels, the book makes a powerful case for radical change in our current systems of sport governance, safeguarding, and athlete welfare. This is important reading for any student, researcher, policy-maker, coach, welfare officer or counsellor with an interest in sport, gender studies, safeguarding, criminology, or sociology.

London; New York: Routledge, 2023. 171p.

By Irina Astashkevich

This is a groundbreaking study of an important and neglected topic—the systematic use of rape as a strategic weapon of the genocidal anti-Jewish violence, known collectively as pogroms, that erupted in Ukraine in the period between 1917 and 1921, and in which at least 100,000 Jews died and undocumented numbers of Jewish women were raped. The book is based on the in-depth study of the scores of narratives of Jewish men and women who survived the pogrom violence, but were then all but forgotten for almost a century. This book deconstructs the motives of perpetrators, the experience and expression of trauma by the victimized community, and how the genocidal objectives of the pogrom perpetrators were achieved and maximized through the macabre carnival of violence.

Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2018. 170p.

By Helen Brayley, Ella Cockbain and Kate Gibson.

In recent years, there has been an increased policy and media focus on the sexual exploitation of children in the UK. This interest follows several high-profile police investigations which led to groups of offenders being charged and convicted for sexual offences against multiple child victims. Practitioner groups such as the police and local safeguarding children boards have been criticised for failing to prevent this form of victimisation. Although there has been an upsurge in activity to address child sexual exploitation (CSE), the recent focus has been almost exclusively on female victims and male offenders. The majority of the literature on CSE has either ignored or only briefly acknowledged the experiences of boys and young men as victims rather than offenders. This rapid evidence assessment, part of a wider Nuffield Foundationfunded project, provides an overview of the current literature addressing the experiences of boys and young men who are CSE victims.

London: University College of London, Barnardos'; NetCen,2014. 42p.

By Stacy Banwell.

More Dangerous to be a Woman? Considering examples of old and new wars ranging from the Holocaust, the 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh; and the armed conflicts in the DRC, Iraq, Syria and Darfur, this book uncovers sexualised, genocidal and reproductive violence against both genders. Crucially, the author showcases examples of male victimisation, and thus redresses gaps within the literature. In particular, as part of an original gendered analysis of the war on terror, Banwell unpacks women’s involvement in sexual violence against male prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Emerald Studies in Criminology, Feminism and Social Change (2020). 221 pages.