NCJ Number
204453
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 12 Issue: 6 Dated: November-December 2003 Pages: 392-400
Date Published
November 2003
Length
9 pages
Annotation
After providing data on the scope of the sexual abuse of infants and children in South Africa, this article reviews explanations for it.
Abstract
In Johannesburg, South Africa, according to police statistics, more than a quarter of all rapes are committed against children of primary school age or younger. Of all rapes in the metropolitan area, 2 percent of the victims are infants, and 8 percent are toddlers. Based on these statistics, it can be determined that approximately 10 percent of all rapes in South Africa are committed against children under 3 years old. Convictions in infants and toddler rape cases are low. In the 9 months from January to September 2001, 19,281 cases of child rape were reported to the police in South Africa; only 49 percent of the cases went to court, and in only 10 percent of these cases was the defendant found guilty. One explanation of the prevalence of infant and toddler rape in South Africa is adherence to the "virgin cleansing myth" from Victorian times, under which intercourse with a virgin cures a sexually transmitted disease. Some believe this myth is widely held in rural areas and informal settlements in South Africa. The prevalence of HIV coupled with lack of access to treatment makes bogus cures attractive. Another explanation of infant and toddler rape is the availability of children as vulnerable targets for sexual objectification, since they cannot offer resistance to the will and strength of the adult. Another explanation has been offered by Jewkes et al. (2002), i.e., that the roots of child rape are in the country's violent past. Jewkes prefers this explanation instead of the virgin myth, because hospital data show no indication of an increase in infant rape associated with the worsening of the AIDS epidemic. The author concludes that infant and toddler rapes are probably related to both a brutal past and an epidemic out of control, as both contribute to the destruction of the social fabric and the inhibition of behavior among perpetrators and child caregivers. 33 references