Why is child recruitment more likely in some displaced populations than in others, and how do development programs impact this likelihood? The problem of child recruitment is endemic across local, national, and international armed conflict, yet minimal data are available to understand the scope and implications of this issue. Further, existing research explores the demand-side mechanisms of child recruitment, from the organizational structure of rebel groups to the nature of modern warfare, yet these theories fail to address the societal and familial factors shaping the supply-side dynamics of child recruitment.

This dissertation addresses this puzzle by exploring the impact of gender-based development policies -- specifically, those associated with women's empowerment -- on child recruitment by armed forces and armed groups. First, utilizing annual reports of the United Nations Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, this project generates an important new dataset by coding all recorded incidents of child recruitment and other grave violations against children in 28 countries from 2006 to 2015. This original dataset enables identification and exploration of the significant relationship between displacement resulting from conflict and the recruitment of children from these vulnerable displaced populations.