A leading South African research group said one in four male South Africans it surveyed admitted to committing rape — a finding that cast a harsh light on a culture of sexual violence that victims groups say is deeply embedded in society.
Police data show that 36,000 women were raped in 2007 — nearly 100 per day. But victim support groups and government-backed research say the vast majority of rapes go unreported because of the stigma and trauma involved. South Africa is home to about 50 million people.
The government-funded Medical Research Council, whose findings often influence official policy, said it conducted the survey to deepen understanding of men’s attitudes and behavior.
Chief researcher Rachel Jewkes said on Friday the findings were “shocking” but “not unexpected.” Opposition political parties said they were horrified, but victim support groups said they were not surprised.
“The report indicates that rape has become ‘normalized’ as a feature of masculine identity in a society that has emerged from years of oppression — a tragic development for both women and for men,” said Anne Marie Goetz, chief of the Governance, Peace and Security section of the UN Development Fund for Women.
“The implications of this are grave for women’s security but also for long-term development, which relies upon deepening gender equality,” Goetz said.
The government had no immediate comment, but the study is expected to be one of the focal points of a conference on sexual violence early next month.
“Rape is a crime of a sense of entitlement. It comes from a notion of power,” Jewkes said, adding that South Africa’s male dominated cultural traditions were partly to blame.
“I don’t think there is a quick fix,” Jewkes said. “If people were concerted about trying to fix it, it would take a generation.”
Researchers interviewed men from more than 1,700 households from a cross-section of the population in the rural provinces of the eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The survey gave no margin of error. The research council is internationally respected and regarded as reliable. It said it surveyed a representative cross-section of men of all races in the two provinces, which are representative of South Africa.
Nearly 28 percent of men interviewed said they had forced a woman or girl to have sexual intercourse against her will, the survey said.
It said that 14 percent said they had raped a former or current girlfriend; 12 percent said they had raped someone who was not their partner; and 10 percent said they had raped both a stranger and a partner.
The research council survey said that nearly 20 percent of those who admitted sexual abuse had the AIDS virus — only slightly higher than the 18 percent infection rate among men not involved in rape.
It said that 17 percent of the men surveyed admitted to attempted rape, and 9 percent said they had taken part in gang rapes.
In all, 42 percent of men surveyed said they had been physically violent to an intimate partner (current or ex-girlfriend or wife), including 14 percent in the past year.
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