Browsing by Subject "Violent crime"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Experience of Violence and Socioeconomic Position in South Africa: A National Study
    (Public Library of Science, 2007) Doolan, Katherine; Ehrlich, Rodney; Myer, Landon
    BACKGROUND: Violence is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in South Africa and needs to be researched from a public health perspective. Typically in violence research, socioeconomic position is used in the analysis to control for confounding. Social epidemiology approaches this variable as a primary determinant of interest and is used in this research to better understand the aetiology of violence in South Africa. We hypothesised that measures of socioeconomic position (employment, education and household wealth) would be inversely related to violence at the individual and household levels. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Data came from the1998 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). Measures of socioeconomic position used were employment, education and household wealth. Eighty-eight people (0.2%) received treatment for a violent injury in the previous 30 days and 103 households (0.9%) experienced a violent death in the previous year. Risk factors for violence at the individual level included employment (41% of those who experienced violence were employed vs. 27% of those who did not, p = 0.02), and education (those who experienced violence had on average, one year more education than those who did not, p = 0.04). Belonging to a household in the wealthiest quintile was protective against violence (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.12-0.89). In contrast, at the household level all three measures of socioeconomic position were protective against the experience of a violent death. The only association to persist in the multivariate analysis was that between the wealth of the household and violence at the individual level. Conclusions/Significance Our hypothesis was supported if household wealth was used as the measure of socioeconomic position at the individual level. While more research is needed to inform the conflicting results observed between the individual and household levels, this analysis has begun to identify the disparities across the socioeconomic structure with respect to violent outcomes.
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    Forensic medicine in South Africa: associations between medical practice and legal case progression and outcomes in female murders
    (Public Library of Science, 2011) Abrahams, Naeemah; Jewkes, Rachel; Martin, Lorna J; Mathews, Shanaaz
    BACKGROUND: Forensic medicine has been largely by-passed by the tide of health systems research and evidence based medicine. Murder victims form a central part of forensic medical examiners' case load, and women murdered by intimate partners are an important subgroup, representing the most severe form and consequence of intimate partner violence. Our aim was to describe the epidemiology of female murder in South Africa (by intimate and non-intimate partners); and to describe and compare autopsy findings, forensic medical management of cases and the contribution of these to legal outcomes. METHODS: We did a retrospective national study in a proportionate random sample of 25 medico-legal laboratories to identify all homicides in 1999 of women aged 14 years and over. Data were abstracted from the mortuary file and autopsy report, and collected from a police interview. FINDINGS: In 21.5% of cases the perpetrator was convicted. Factors associated with a conviction for the female murders included having a history of intimate partner violence 1.18 (95%CI: 0.16-2.20), weapon recovered 1.36 (95% CI:0.58-2.15) and a detective visiting the crime scene 1.57 (95% CI:0.14-3.00). None of the forensic medical activities increased the likelihood of a conviction. CONCLUSION: The findings raise important questions about the role of forensic medicine in these cases.
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    Gender inequitable masculinity and sexual entitlement in rape perpetration South Africa: findings of a cross-sectional study
    (Public Library of Science, 2011) Jewkes, Rachel; Sikweyiya, Yandisa; Morrell, Robert; Dunkle, Kristin
    Objective To describe the prevalence and patterns of rape perpetration in a randomly selected sample of men from the general adult population, to explore factors associated with rape and to describe how men explained their acts of rape. Design Cross-sectional household study with a two- stage randomly selected sample of men. METHODS: 1737 South African men aged 18-49 completed a questionnaire administered using an Audio-enhanced Personal Digital Assistant. Multivariable logistic regression models were built to identify factors associated with rape perpetration. RESULTS: In all 27.6% (466/1686) of men had raped a woman, whether an intimate partner, stranger or acquaintance, and whether perpetrated alone or with accomplices, and 4.7% had raped in the last 12 months. First rapes for 75% were perpetrated before age 20, and 53.9% (251) of those raping, did so on multiple occasions. The logistic regression model showed that having raped was associated with greater adversity in childhood, having been raped by a man and higher maternal education. It was associated with less equitable views on gender relations, having had more partners, and many more gender inequitable practices including transactional sex and physical partner violence. Also drug use, gang membership and a higher score on the dimensions of psychopathic personality, namely blame externalisation and Machiavellian egocentricity. Asked about why they did it, the most common motivations stemmed from ideas of sexual entitlement. CONCLUSIONS: Perpetration of rape is so prevalent that population-based measures of prevention are essential to complement criminal justice system responses. Our findings show the importance of measures to build gender equity and change dominant ideas of masculinity and gender relations as part of rape prevention. Reducing men's exposure to trauma in childhood is also critically important.
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    Men, prostitution and the provider role: understanding the intersections of economic exchange, sex, crime and violence in South Africa
    (Public Library of Science, 2012) Jewkes, Rachel; Morrell, Robert; Sikweyiya, Yandisa; Dunkle, Kristin; Penn-Kekana, Loveday
    BACKGROUND: South African policy makers are reviewing legislation of prostitution, concerned that criminalisation hampers HIV prevention. They seek to understand the relationship between transactional sex, prostitution, and the nature of the involved men. METHODS: 1645 randomly-selected adult South African men participated in a household study, disclosing whether they had sex with a woman in prostitution or had had a provider relationship (or sex), participation in crime and violence and completing psychological measures. These became outcomes in multivariable regression models, where the former were exposure variables. RESULTS: 51% of men had had a provider relationship and expected sex in return, 3% had had sex with a woman in prostitution, 15% men had done both of these and 31% neither. Provider role men, and those who had just had sex with a woman in prostitution, were socially conservative and quite violent. Yet the men who had done both (75% of those having sex with a woman in prostitution) were significantly more misogynist, highly scoring on dimensions of psychopathy, more sexually and physically violent to women, and extensively engaged in crime. They had often bullied at school, suggesting that this instrumental, self-seeking masculinity was manifest in childhood. The men who had not engaged in sex for economic exchange expressed a much less violent, more law abiding and gender equitable masculinity; challenging assumptions about the inevitability of intersections of age, poverty, crime and misogyny. CONCLUSIONS: Provider role relationships (or sex) are normative for low income men, but not having sex with a woman in prostitution. Men who do the latter operate extensively outside the law and their violence poses a substantial threat to women. Those drafting legislation and policy on the sex industry in South Africa need to distinguish between these two groups to avoid criminalising the normal, and consider measures to protect women.
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    Prevalence of consensual male–male sex and sexual violence, and associations with HIV in South Africa: A population-based cross-sectional study
    (Public Library of Science, 2013) Dunkle, Kristin L; Jewkes, Rachel K; Murdock, Daniel W; Sikweyiya, Yandisa; Morrell, Robert
    Background: In sub-Saharan Africa the population prevalence of men who have sex with men (MSM) is unknown, as is the population prevalence of male-on-male sexual violence, and whether male-on-male sexual violence may relate to HIV risk. This paper describes lifetime prevalence of consensual male–male sexual behavior and male-on-male sexual violence (victimization and perpetration) in two South African provinces, socio-demographic factors associated with these experiences, and associations with HIV serostatus. Methods and Findings: In a cross-sectional study conducted in 2008, men aged 18–49 y from randomly selected households in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces provided anonymous survey data and dried blood spots for HIV serostatus assessment. Interviews were completed in 1,737 of 2,298 (75.6%) of enumerated and eligible households. From these households, 1,705 men (97.1%) provided data on lifetime history of same-sex experiences, and 1,220 (70.2%) also provided dried blood spots for HIV testing. 5.4% (n = 92) of participants reported a lifetime history of any consensual sexual activity with another man; 9.6% (n = 164) reported any sexual victimization by a man, and 3.0% (n = 51) reported perpetrating sexual violence against another man. 85.0% (n = 79) of men with a history of consensual sex with men reported having a current female partner, and 27.7% (n = 26) reported having a current male partner. Of the latter, 80.6% (n = 21/26) also reported having a female partner. Men reporting a history of consensual male–male sexual behavior are more likely to have been a victim of male-on-male sexual violence (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 7.24; 95% CI 4.26–12.3), and to have perpetrated sexual violence against another man (aOR = 3.10; 95% CI 1.22–7.90). Men reporting consensual oral/anal sex with a man were more likely to be HIV+ than men with no such history (aOR = 3.11; 95% CI 1.24–7.80). Men who had raped a man were more likely to be HIV+ than non-perpetrators (aOR = 3.58; 95% CI 1.17–10.9). Conclusions: In this sample, one in 20 men (5.4%) reported lifetime consensual sexual contact with a man, while about one in ten (9.6%) reported experience of male-on-male sexual violence victimization. Men who reported having had sex with men were more likely to be HIV+, as were men who reported perpetrating sexual violence towards other men. Whilst there was no direct measure of male–female concurrency (having overlapping sexual relationships with men and women), the data suggest that this may have been common. These findings suggest that HIV prevention messages regarding male–male sex in South Africa should be mainstreamed with prevention messages for the general population, and sexual health interventions and HIV prevention interventions for South African men should explicitly address male-on-male sexual violence.