This article provides a comprehensive overview of how the legal treatment of sexual violence has evolved. In spite of the broad range of gender-based war crimes and their pervasiveness during armed conflict, the author argues that these crimes have not received the legal attention they rightfully deserve in the latter half of the 20th century. The author argues that the failure to prosecute is irreprehensible because this failure not only adversely affects the individual woman, but also because the harm affects the society as a whole.