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'Rape by schoolboys is normal'
Megan Power. Sunday Tribune 23 February 2003 Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd
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A new survey among 450 Durban schoolboys suggests sexual aggression against their female counterparts has become the norm. A staggering two thirds of high school boys questioned have admitted to sexually abusing girls under 18, and a further 17% of them have gone as far as rape.
The alarming findings, due to be published this year, stem from research into sexual aggression among high school boys conducted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal's School of Psychology last year. The figures are more than double those revealed in separate studies at five American colleges, and significantly higher than the 25% prevalence rate recorded among South African university students. And, say researchers, because under-reporting is expected in surveys of behaviour which carries a crimial sanction, the real statistics are likely to be even higher.
"Two thirds of these pupils are comfortable telling me that they've sexually abused girls," said the School's Associate Professor Steven Collings, who conducted the study with colleague Thandekile Magojo. "The figures are telling me that, at least in this sample, sexually abusive behaviour is the norm," he said.
The questionnaire - distributed among predominantly black pupils aged between 16 and 25 in a large Durban township - covered a wide range of sexual abuse practices, including sexual harassment, indecent assault and rape. Besides rape and attempted rape, pupils were asked whether they'd ever exposed themselves to a girl (20%), made sexually abusive phonecalls (16%), secretly watched them undress (34%), or touched a girl in a sexual way (27%).
The study also looked at the group's attitudes towards violence. "If we want to understand sexual abuse in South Africa, we can go the route of looking at attitudes and beliefs around sexual behaviour," said Collings. "Or we can look at the culture of violence in South Africa to see if sexual abuse is simply one manifestation of that violence," he said.
The results clearly showed that sexual aggressors were more likely to ascribe to attitudes and beliefs supportive of both sexual and physical violence. "What this is telling us is that attitudes that are supportive of violence are more predictive of sexual abuse than rape myths and beliefs," he said.
A second survey conducted by the team focused on a different sample of boys from the same area. Here, they were asked only about attitudes to violence. The results were equally disturbing. Almost 80% reported a history of violent behaviour, saying they had actually killed a person. In addition, almost 1000 acts of interpersonal violence were reported.
Collings is quick to point out the limitations of both surveys, saying the findings may not be representative of South African high school males in general. "It would be interesting to do the same study on a larger scale in different regions and among different groups of boys to see how the findings could be generalised," he said.
However, he is fairly convinced that if you did the same research on a national scale, his findings would be a pretty clear average. His real interest, meanwhile, is working out what to do with the findings. "We need to start dealing with the cause of the problem. This study shows that men don't only abuse because of sexual beliefs and attitudes. Those attitudes are just part of the problem. They rape because they've internalised violence as a norm and one aspect of this violence acting out is sexual abuse," he said.
And, he continued, if this is indeed the case, what is it saying about current prevention programmes? "Nobody is addressing the very issue which these findings are suggesting lies behind sexual abuse," he said. Although Collings maintains that rape has a sexual component, he said it needed to be viewed primarily as a crime of violence. To focus exclusively on the offender's sexual attitudes was a mistake, he said. "I've never believed that prevention can be effective by focusing on victims, which is what most programmes still do."
The findings suggested there needed to be intensive and extensive primary and secondary intervention programmes. Such programmes needed to address both reactive and culturally ingrained attitudes to aggression, he said, and should be targeted to the specific needs of subgroups of sexually aggressive and potentially aggressive young men.
"Every schoolboy in South Africa should be taught that rape myths are rubbish and that violence is unacceptable," Collings said. He said the relationship between the culture of violence and sexual aggression that emerged in the research suggested intervention efforts needed to focus on "more comprehensive plans of action" designed to re-sensitise communities to the realities and effects of social violence, and afford more meaningful and effective protection for women and girls.
"If rape prevention organisations shifted their programmes to dealing more with the cause of the abuse, it would be one of very few changes in 18 years that represented real progress," he said.
by Megan Power
Sunday Tribune 23 February 2003 |
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