POLICE BEHAVIOR IN POST-CONFLICT STATES: EXPLAINING VARIATION IN RESPONSES TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, INTERNAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING, AND RAPE by Peace A. Medie B.A., University of Ghana, 2003 M.A., Ohio University, 2006 Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS The dissertation was presented by Peace A. Medie It was defended on July 11, 2012 and approved by Dr. Lisa Brush, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology Dr. Muge Finkel, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Dr. Harvey White, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Dissertation Director: Dr. Taylor Seybolt, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs ii Copyright © by Peace A. Medie 2012 iii POLICE BEHAVIOR IN POST-CONFLICT STATES: EXPLAINING VARIATION IN RESPONSES TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, INTERNAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING, AND RAPE Peace A. Medie, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 Security sector reform programs restructure police forces to improve how they respond to gender-based violence (GBV). However, significant weaknesses persist in how police officers enforce anti-GBV laws. One area of weakness is the attrition of cases; officers fail to refer the majority of cases to the courts but rather withdraw them at the police station. Studies of police behavior in post-conflict African states have attributed the withdrawal of cases to corruption, poor professionalism, patriarchal gender norms, and underequipped police forces. Though salient, these conditions do not adequately explain police responses to GBV crimes. Even in police stations with the most poorly trained, corrupt, underequipped, and biased officers, a small number of cases advance to court. This dissertation investigates this puzzle by studying officers’ responses to domestic violence, internal human trafficking, and rape in two Liberian counties. While officers withdraw over 50 percent of domestic violence and internal human trafficking cases, they withdraw less than five percent of rape cases every year. This study employs 150 interviews with officers of the Women and Children Protection Section (WACPS) as well as survivors of violence, bureaucrats, and staff of international organizations (IOs) and local women’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to explain this disparity. It finds that officers iv are more likely to refer rape cases to court because they perceive rape as an offense that is above the jurisdiction of the police and because the WACPS enforces a non-withdrawal policy for rape cases. This perception is a product of training provided by state and non-state actors; the stature of the crime in the penal law; and the WACPS’ policies. This study also finds that when these two conditions do not exist, officers sometimes forward cases to court based on their judgments of the victim and of the effects of the crime on the victim. It argues that the state, IOs, and NGOs have prioritized sexual violence and emphasized the prosecution of sexual offenders through legal and policy changes, institution building, and awareness-raising, to the relative neglect of other forms of GBV. This disparity has contributed to the variation in how officers respond to GBV. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE xii 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 CURRENT EXPLANATIONS FOR POLICE BEHAVIOR 5 1.1.1 Hypotheses 7 1.2 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 10 1.3 FINDINGS 11 1.4 CONCLUSION 15 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 INTRODUCTION 16 2.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM 17 2.2.1 Defining Key Terminology and Operationalizing the Dependent Variables 21 2.3 LITERATURE REVIEW 23 2.3.1 Explaining Police Behavior in the Public Administration Literature 24 2.3.2 Explaining Police Behavior in the Feminist, Women’s Studies and 32 Post-Conflict Literatures 2.3.2.1 The public/private divide 32 2.3.2.2 Post-conflict policing 39 2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 41 2.4.1 Hypotheses 51 2.5 METHODOLOGY 58 2.5.1 Case Selection 58 2.5.2 Method 61 2.5.3 Interviews 62 2.5.4 Data Analysis 66 2.6 LIMITATION 69 2.7 CONCLUSION 69 vi 3.0 GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN LIBERIAN SOCIETY 72 3.1 INTRODUCTION 72 3.1.1 Limitations of the Literature 75 3.2 THE LIBERIAN STATE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 78 3.2.1 Settlers – Indigenes’ Relationship 85 3.2.2 Pre-Civil War Liberia 88 3.2.2.1 Gender relations 88 3.2.2.2 Gender-based violence in pre-civil war Liberia 96 3.2.2.2.1 Domestic violence 97 3.2.2.2.2 Internal human trafficking 104 3.2.2.2.3 Rape 108 3.2.3 Gender-Based Violence during the Civil Wars 110 3.2.4 Post-Civil War Liberia 113 3.2.4.1 Gender relations 113 3.2.4.2 Gender-based violence in Post-Civil War Liberia 115 3.2.4.2.1 Domestic violence 116 3.2.4.2.2 Internal Human Trafficking 118 3.2.4.2.3 Rape 123 3.3 ASSESSMENT OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: VICTIMS’ 129 PREFERENCES 3.4 CONCLUSION 129 4.0 RESPONSES TO GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: THE STATE AND 133 NON-STATE ORGANIZATIONS 4.1 INTRODUCTION 133 4.2 WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS 134 4.3 RESPONSES TO GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN PRE-CIVIL 140 WAR LIBERIA (1847 - 1989) 4.4 RESPONSES TO GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE DURING THE 149 CIVIL WARS (1989 - 2003) 4.5 RESPONDING TO GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AFTER THE 163 CIVIL WARS (2003 - 2011) 4.5.1 The Initial Post-War Phase 163 4.5.2 The Reconstruction Period 168 vii 4.5.2.1 Laws and policies 168 4.5.2.2 Institutional and programmatic changes 174 4.5.2.3 Awareness and consciousness-raising 185 4.6 ASSESSMENT OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: STATE AND 188 NON-STATE ACTORS 4.7 RELEVANCE TO THE LITERATURE 193 5.0 ENFORCING ANTI-GBV LAWS IN LIBERIA 201 5.1 INTRODUCTION 201 5.2 THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LIBERIA 204 5.2.1 Enforcing Anti-GBV Laws in Pre-Civil War Liberia 205 5.2.2 Enforcing Anti-GBV Laws in Post-Civil War Liberia 207 5.2.2.1 Rules and regulations of the women and children protection 213 section 5.3 ASSESSMENT OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: THE 220 ORGANIZATION 5.4 POLICE OFFICERS’ RESPONSES TO RAPE 222 5.5 POLICE OFFICERS’ RESPONSES TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 235 5.6 POLICE OFFICERS’ RESPONSES TO INTERNAL HUMAN 244 TRAFFICKING 5.7 ASSESSMENT OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: THE 254 INDIVIDUAL 5.8 EXPLAINING THE VARIATION: WHY ARE OFFICERS MORE 256 LIKELY TO FORWARD RAPE CASES TO COURT? 5.9 THEORETICAL AND POLICY RELEVANCE 260 6.0 CONCLUSION 262 6.1 THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS 263 6.1.1 Enforcing Women’s Rights Laws 263 6.1.2 Police Behavior 264 6.1.3 The Women’s Movement 266 6.1.4 The Changing Gender Social Order 270 6.1.5 The International Influence 273 6.2 POLICY IMPLICATIONS 281 6.2.1 Enhancing Police Performance 282 viii 6.2.1.1 What is the right response? 282 6.3 CONCLUSION 286 APPENDIX A. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 287 APPENDIX B. INTERVIEW PROTOCOLS 289 APPENDIX C. CODEBOOK 296 BIBLIOGRAPHY 299 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Women and Children Protection Section’s National Case Disposal 9 Statistics for 2009 Table 2. Women and Children Protection Section’s National Case Disposal 20 Statistics for 2010 Table 3. List of Explanatory Variables 41 Table 4. Sources of Influence on Street-Level Bureaucrats According to the 43 Literatures Reviewed Table 5. Values on the Explanatory Variables 49 Table 6. Substantive and Geographical Cases Studied 62 Table 7. Reasons for Victims’ Reluctance to Report GBV to the Police in the 128 Post-War Period Table 8. Explanatory Variables that Cause Case Referrals 256 Table 9. Explanatory Variables that Cause Case Withdrawals 256 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Causal Pathway to Court I – Rape 232 Figure 2. Causal Pathway to Court II – Rape 232 Figure 3. Causal Pathway to Court III – Rape 232 Figure 4. Causal Pathway to Court I – Aggravated Assault 242 Figure 5. Causal Pathway to Court II – Aggravated Assault 243 Figure 6. Causal Pathway to Withdrawal I – Aggravated Assault 243 Figure 7. Causal Pathway to Court I – Internal Human Trafficking 251 Figure 8. Causal Pathway to Withdrawal I – Internal Human Trafficking 252 Figure 9. Causal Pathway to Withdrawal II – Internal Human Trafficking 252 xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND DEDICATION I am very grateful to my dissertation committee for the time that they invested in working with me and the invaluable advice that they provided throughout the process. I would like to thank Dr. Taylor Seybolt, my advisor and chair of the committee, for his patient guidance and astute comments, and for continually encouraging me to refine every area of this project. Dr. Lisa Brush was very generous with her time and expertise, reading multiple drafts of the manuscript and providing critical comments to improve my work. Dr. Muge Finkel asked thoughtful questions that pushed me to sharpen my arguments. Dr. Havey White was incredibly supportive and kind, and also provided very helpful comments. I am solely responsible for all errors and weaknesses within this dissertation. I began my studies at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) under the guidance of Dr. Charli Carpenter, I am grateful to have worked with her. I would also like to thank Dr. Barbara Porter, Dr. Martin Staniland, and Dr. Phyllis Coontz for their kindness and support during my time at GSPIA.