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Concept
Sexual violence in South Africa
Summary
The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. Police statistics of reported rapes as a per capita figure has been dropping in recent years, although the reasons for the drop has not been analysed and it is not known how many rapes go unreported. More women are attacked than men, and children have also been targeted, partly owing to a myth that having sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV/AIDS. Rape victims are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS owing to the high prevalence of the disease in South Africa. "Corrective rape" is also perpetrated against LGBT men and women.
The South African Government has established several measures, including legislation and initiatives to prevent and combat the problem. These include the establishment of the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit (SOCA) in 1999, and a network of Thuthuzela Care Centres. These are sexual violence support centres which employ a transdisciplinary approach to dealing with the aftermath of an assault, and are considered by the UN as best practice model.
Sexual violence in South Africa has been widely reported in both local and international media, and is also represented in fiction writing.
South Africa's Police Service (SAPS) releases the country's crime statistics. The crime category "sexual offences" includes a wide range of sexual offences, including rape, sexual assault, incest, bestiality, flashing, and other crimes. SAPS releases statistics on reported rapes every quarter, as well as an annual report (financial year, April thru March each year). The figures in the following table include reported rapes only.
According to the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the period 1998–2000, South Africa was ranked first for rapes per capita. In 1998, one in three of the 4,000 women questioned in Johannesburg had been raped, according to Community Information, Empowerment and Transparency (CIET) Africa. While women's groups in South Africa estimate that a woman is raped every 26 seconds, the South African police estimates that a woman is raped every 36 seconds.
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