"Quarter Of Men In South Africa Admit Rape, Survey Finds"

by David Smith in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 17 June 2009 19.24 BST

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Read the rest of the article here.

SIDENOTE: It is a shocking statistic but hardly surprising. South Africa is a very violent country and rape is all about violence.

I expect though that there will be questions about the assertion that the statistic is "rooted in an African ideal of manhood." Can it be so straightforward?

What say you?

Onward!