Inherited Privileges and Coercive Repertoires: How Rebel Origins Shape Civilian Abuse.

Why do some rebel groups commit a wide range of human rights violations against civilians while others exercise considerable restraint? Existing research explains rebel violence through wartime dynamics and battlefield incentives, paying less attention to factors established before conflict begins. This study examines how the organizational origins of rebel groups shape the range of coercive practices they deploy during civil war. Using data from the Rebel Human Rights Violations dataset (1990–2018), the Foundations of Rebel Group Emergence dataset, and the Non-State Actors dataset, I find that organizational origins condition patterns of abuse. Groups with non-violent origins, those rooted in civil society organizations and political parties, employ a narrower range of violations than those emerging from violent parent organizations. Similarly, groups without identifiable parent organizations commit fewer and less varied abuses. These findings show that pre-conflict organizational foundations shape not only whether rebels abuse civilians, but how broadly they do so.