[Since this is a study of Johannesburg’s inner city – which is pretty much a black area – I would suspect that these statistics relate to black-on-black crime. In short… it is probably black men who are gang-raping black women. Johannesburg’s inner city is a cess-pool – I know – I work there!! Jan]

More research needs to be done to understand the root cause of rape and what goes through the minds of perpetrators of this heinous crime. This was the call from SAPS Johannesburg area commissioner Oswald Reddy on Tuesday.

He was speaking after the release of a study into gang rapes in Johannesburg’s inner city by the Gender-based Violence Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

According to the study, of every four rapes that occurred, one was a gang rape.

The study analysed 162 rapes reported during one year at six police stations in Johannesburg’s inner city.

‘Whatever the statistics, one rape is one too many’
According to the study, 56 percent of the victims had been raped by two perpetrators, while 23 percent had been raped by three men.

“In two cases, there were as many as 12 perpetrators,” the study read.

The study found that in gang rapes, only one out of 10 victims knew their attackers, compared to single-perpetrator rapes, in which a just under half the assailants were known to the victims, either intimately or by sight.

According to the study, gang rapes were most likely to happen at night, between 7pm and 9pm.

The study showed that 31 percent of gang rapes occurred in public spaces, like parks, open veld and parking areas, and that when more than one attacker was involved, there was a great chance they would be armed.

Added to this, the likelihood of the rapists being held accountable for the crime was minimal. Not many of the cases made it to court.

Of the 162 cases recorded, only 14 went to court, and only one case resulted in a conviction.

“No perpetrators were ever arrested in the remainder of the cases,” the study read.

Kubi Rama, deputy director of Gender Links, said South Africa had one of the highest levels of gender violence in the world.

“Whatever the statistics, one rape is one too many, and the South African court system is still ill-equipped to deal with rape cases quickly and sensitively.

Fifty percent of all cases heard before courts are of rape. Only seven percent of these result in conviction,” she said.

This article was originally published on page 3 of The Mercury on March 09, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>