27.6% of South African Men Aged 18-49 Have Raped A Woman, study shows

A study in South Africa found that 27.6 per cent of South African men aged 18-49 have raped a woman.

The study titled “Why, When and How Men Rape: Understanding Rape Perpetration In South Africa”. It was carried out by Rachel Jewkes, Yandisa Sikweyiya, Robert Morrell and Kristin Dunkle.

The study was conducted from random samplings of men, majorly from the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal regions of South Africa. However, the samples of men were mainly aged between 18-49.

It discovered that overall, 27.6 per cent of the men questioned anonymously had raped a woman and listed reasons such as boredom, a sense of sexual entitlement and punishment against wives and girlfriends as motivations for rape.

The men interrogated also revealed that they had done so more than once, had different kinds of victims and sometimes raped women in groups as “entertainment”.

The research went on to observe that a third of the men interviewed experienced no form of guilt for the act and consequently had not experienced any form of punishment or consequence for their actions.

The remaining men interviewed revealed that they sometimes worried about consequences.

There had been action taken against them by their families, that of the victim and respected members of the community.

It concluded that one in five of the men interviewed had been arrested for rape. It also claimed that rape is highly prevalent in South Africa with only a small proportion of incidents reported to the police.

Another study has pointed to South Africa’s culture of male domination and aggression as a reason for rape, as a male way of asserting control of women.

Rape is considered endemic in South Africa. Between April and June 2022, 9,516 rape cases were registered with the police, according to the national minister of police. 3,780 of them were reported to have happened in the homes of the rapists or victims; 1,546 of them were reported to have occurred in public places, such as streets, parks and beaches or in public transport, including taxis and trains.

In August, over 80 men accused of gang raping eight women and the armed robbery of a video production crew appeared in a court in Johannesburg. According to the police, the gang forced their way into the video shoot and raped eight women aged between 18 and 35 from the cast.