31% of South African Men Are Rapists

By Jacob Freeze, Section Diaries
Posted on Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 08:03:25 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

From the Guardian...

(Professor Rachel) Jewkes and her colleagues (on the Medical Research Council) interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive.
Only 7% of reported rapes are estimated to lead to a conviction.
A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.

Some of this is old news, and as the BBC reported in 2002...

A woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped, than learning how to read.
During a recent parliamentary debate on child abuse in South Africa, it was reported that there has been a 400% increase in the sexual violence against children over the past decade.

And meanwhile, the hodgepodge of laws governing rape in South African is slowly reformed...

South African lawmakers Tuesday approved major reforms to the country's rape laws, including extending the definition of rape to include men.
Among other changes, it equalizes treatment of male and female victims and labels many more types of assaults, including forced oral sex, as "rape." Previously, forced anal penetration of men or boys was prosecuted as an "indecent act" and given much lighter sentencing.
A man convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl in 2004 appealed to the high court, citing evidence that found she had been anally, but not vaginally, penetrated. The court ruled May 10 that under the laws then prevailing the defendant could only be seen to have committed indecent assault and sent his sentence back to a lower court for review.

< Obama Gets It Right, Where Condi Got It Wrong With Iran | The Invisible Iranian Embassy in Nicaragua >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

31% of South African Men Are Rapists | 5 comments (5 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

Good God. (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Jun 22, 2009 at 10:31:19 PM EST

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy.

Can this really be true?

: The survey looks solid to me. (none / 0) (#2)
by Jacob Freeze on Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 03:51:31 AM EST

The sample was selected by Statistics South Africa, which puts out dozens of reports for major corporate and institutional clients every year, and the analysis comes from the equally respectable Medical Research Council in South Africa.
The cluster-survey methodology is also standard for big demographic samples.

I travelled to Cape Town (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by coigue on Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 09:24:41 PM EST

about 1.5 million people live in townships outside of the main part of the city. These townships DO NOT HAVE CITY POLICE enforcement.

They depend on community justice. They elect respected people to determine community justice, and they have public beatings for thiefs within neighborhoods.

It's really crazy.

: "Justice" in shanty-towns (none / 0) (#4)
by Jacob Freeze on Sun Jul 12, 2009 at 01:59:26 PM EST

Thanks for reminding me about the absence of regular law-enforcement in shanty-towns all over the world.
Amnesty International is one of a very few organizations which bothers to cover this story, for example in Brazil...

"Far from providing protection, the police often subject women to illegal searches by male officers, abusive and discriminatory language and intimidation, especially when they attempt to intervene to protect a relative," said Tim Cahill (a researcher at Amnesty International).
"In the absence of the state, drug lords and gang leaders are the law in most shanty towns. They dispense punishment and protection and use women as trophies or bargaining tools."
The knock-on effects of crime and violence reverberate through entire communities, severely affecting the provision of basic services, such as healthcare and education. If local clinics fall within the territory of a rival gang, women can be forced to travel miles to see a doctor. Maternity services, crèches and schools can be closed for long periods because of police operations or criminal violence. Healthcare workers and teachers are often too scared to work in crime-blighted neighbourhoods.

So under Obama... (none / 0) (#5)
by diogenes on Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 01:07:42 AM EST

Does this mean that thirty-one percent of South African women can file for political asylum?