Sexualized war violence. Knowledge construction and knowledge gaps

•From implicit vaginal rape to differentiated sexual/ized violence•From biologically determined to socially constructed•From qualitative feminist analyses to large-N statistics•From patriarchal continuum to war specific processes•Security and criminalization from periphery to center

This qualitative literature review provides an overview of the proliferating research field that research on sexualized war violence has become. The article critically reviews some of the main theories on sexualized war violence in light of five basic and interrelated dimensions: terminology and conceptualizations, etiological approaches, disciplinary grounding, contextual emphasis, and, lastly, the policy implications these dimensions imply. The review involves a discussion of critical contestations within the field and an outline of research gaps that still need exploration. Sexualized war violence is a research area that warrants criminological attention; it is an aim of this article to suggest possible theoretical and empirical directions that such inquiries may take.