This book studies sexual violence by situating it amongst various critically important contexts such as social harmony, justice and war. Drawing on a decade-long engagement with Acholi communities in Uganda during and after the height of the war between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, Porter demonstrates different understandings of and responses to rape through in-depth interviews with nearly 200 women in two communities, everyday moments from sustained ethnographic fieldwork in the region, and culturally specific Acholi concepts, practices, folk tales and proverbs. This book reveals insights that further our understanding of sexual violence, war, wrongdoing and justice more broadly.

Rape and sexual violence, as well as responses to them, must be understood within the local dynamics in which they occur. In northern Uganda, this means acknowledging the value of social harmony and the lack of faith in higher authorities to bring about justice. When women consider seeking redress after rape, or when relatives decide what to do in response, they often do so while prioritising social harmony, which Porter describes as a ‘web of relations’ and a ‘highly valued ideal’ that denotes good relations between social and cosmological forces (p. 3). Striving to maintain social harmony means that who commits rape, for what reasons and where, have as much to do with how the act is perceived and what forms of justice might be achieved as questions of consent and the wishes of victims.

The book begins with an introduction, an overview of the research project, and an exposition of key concepts. Chapter 4 focuses on Acholi notions of love and the role of sex in social belonging. Common metaphors for sex and cultural practices around marriage payments are discussed, emphasising the central role of sex to creating and maintaining social harmony (p. 77). Chapter 5 discusses the meaning of consent and rape in the context of common sexual encounters which emphasise male forcefulness and female refusal, as well as various interpretations of consent and transgression. Chapter 6 complicates transitional justice by situating it within Acholi notions of justice, which are less about guilt than about maintaining social harmony and are determined by one's ‘moral community’ – wherein inclusion or exclusion determine what type of justice a perpetrator might face (p. 152) – and with justice actors' authority to right wrongs (their ‘moral jurisdiction’, p. 141) in mind. Chapter 7 highlights the roles of relatives, NGOs and churches in responding to and shaping ideas about rape. Chapter 8 compares civilian and combatant perpetrated rape, complicating our understanding of sexual violence during war and peacetime. Comparing civilian ‘marriage by capture’ and LRA forced marriages after abduction, and looking at rape by both civilian and military strangers, Porter demonstrates continuities that unsettle transitional justice's assumed exceptionalism.

Porter theorises rape in terms of power and violence, but also sex, situating sexual violence in Acholi understandings of sex and marriage and their aberrations. The concepts of moral community and social harmony, as used here, seem applicable in other circumstances elsewhere. By revealing how sexual violence is understood as wrongdoing and the limited options women have to seek redress, the book offers new insights for scholars of sexual violence and marriage and those studying transitional justice and justice more broadly.