When Protection Becomes Predation: Militarized Masculinity and Sexual Violence in Northeastern Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigates the structural and situational drivers of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) perpetrated by state security actors in the context of Nigeria’s counterinsurgency campaigns in Borno State. Drawing on militarized masculinity and strain and deprivation theories, and using a qualitative, interpretive research design, the study argues that CRSV is not an isolated or episodic form of deviance by individual soldiers and security personnel but is embedded in routine military–civilian interactions. Advancing an interactionist explanation of CRSV in Nigeria’s Islamist counterinsurgency operations, the study demonstrates that the likelihood of sexual violence increases through the interaction of gendered institutional norms, operational pressures, and permissive institutional environments. It further highlights the strategic implications of such abuses, including their potential to undermine state legitimacy and contribute to insurgent recruitment. The paper concludes that preventing CRSV requires addressing not only individual misconduct but also the structural and institutional conditions, including gendered organizational norms, operational strain, and weak accountability mechanisms, that enable and sustain such violence.