I am proud to announce that I have started my literature research! According to my investigations South Africa has the highest rate of rape and femicide (women killed by their partners) in the world! Black women are more likely than white women to get raped and this usually happens on their way to work. There is evidence of serial rapes but no one wants to really admit that. It's unfortunate that because of some people's ignorance innocent women are getting raped or dying.
I have to say I am a bit nervous about how I am going to react to the descriptive records, pictures, and uncooperative officials of South Africa. Don't know if a week of training is going to prepare me all that well for such a challenge but all I can do now is trust in my strength and ability to adapt myself to such tragic occurrences. Hopefully my negative feelings towards forensic medicine will change once (hopefully) we can find some good results.
I started googling my primary mentor, Dr. Lorna Martin. Came across this interesting article on rape in South Africa. The power of myths and the fact that people actually act on these amazes me. Sometimes I just keep thinking , who is really at fault here? I guess it's not such a simple question...
The 'virgin myth' and child rape in South Africa
MRC News Release
In recent months South Africans recoiled in horror as the drama of several brutal child rape cases unfolded. Many believe that the myth that sex with a virgin cleanses a man of HIV/AIDS is behind these atrocities. Not so, says Dr Rachel Jewkes, Director of the MRC's Gender and Health Research Group.
Dr Jewkes and two of her collaborators, Dr Lorna Martin (Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, University of Cape Town) and Ms Loveday Penn-Kekana (Centre for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand) believe other factors are to blame for these violent acts.
"The idea that having sex with a virgin cleanses you of AIDS does exist in South Africa and there have been reported cases of this as a motivating factor for child rape, but the predominant evidence suggests that this is infrequently the case," Dr Jewkes says. She quotes Mr Luke Lamprecht, the manager of the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg, which is the referral point for all child sex abuse cases in the metropolis. According to him, he has only seen one child rape case where the perpetrator believed the myth. This happened some 4 years ago - and the child's mother agreed that the HIV-positive man could rape her 4-year-old in exchange for cash.
"According to another report on child rape which investigated injury patterns, management and outcomes, there was a 1% sero-conversion rate.* This was, for most cases, in the absence of anti-retroviral therapy and therefore suggests that this myth is not an important cause of rape. If it had been, in view of the extensive injuries common in child rape, a higher rate of sero-conversion would be expected," says Dr Jewkes.
No increase
Dr Jewkes says that there is no evidence overall that infant rapes are increasing in South Africa, nor that any of the recent infant rape perpetrators, some of whom have been apprehended, knew they had HIV.
In response to the suggestion that infant rape is new in South Africa, Dr Lorna Martin says: "I have seen rape of babies periodically during the whole of the last decade in which I have been working as a district surgeon and forensic pathologist, and have not particularly seen more recently". Dr Jewkes suggests that the perception of an increase may be related to concerted efforts by the media to search for cases and give them prominence.
According to Dr Jewkes, there has been a recent cluster of 5 cases identified over a 2-month period at the end of 2001. "It is likely that at least one, and perhaps more, of these cases was a copy cat crime, unrelated to HIV. One, and probably 2, of the 5 recent cases were associated with Cape Town gang initiation rituals, which are notoriously extremely brutal," she stresses.*
A violent past
She says the country's past is to blame for the very high levels of interpersonal violence experienced. "Many people in South Africa have been extremely brutalised by the political violence in our past, the disruption of families and communities, high levels of poverty and the very high level of violence of all forms," she says.
Much of this violence is directed towards women and girl children - a result of the marked gender inequalities in our society, a culture of male sexual entitlement and climate of relatively impunity in which rape is perpetrated. "The root of the problem of infant rape, as with rape of older girls and women, substantially lies at these more mundane doors. It should be regarded as part of the spectrum of sexual violence against women and girls," Dr Jewkes voices.
Prevention
According to her, infant and child rape will only be prevented if all forms of violence can be reduced in our society, poverty reduced, and a climate of gender equality and respect for women and girl-children promoted.
She also thinks that rape ought to be redefined. "All acts of coercive sex should be regarded as rape, irrespective of the circumstances. And communities should develop an environment where men are deterred from rape through threat of punishment."
"To do this, more resources are needed for expanding the provision of medical staff trained in sexual assault examination and extending police and social work capacity for investigating and assisting rape cases."
http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2002/april/rape.htm
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