Rape not a crime?

Last updated: Thursday, March 01, 2007 Print

In the recent parliamentary discussions and media reports on crime and violence in South Africa, it has been startling to note the lack of recognition given to crimes involving sexual violence, such as rape and indecent assault, says Rape Crisis.

“While we fully recognise that murder, robbery, cell phone theft and car jacking are issues that we are all confronted with on a daily basis, so are rape and sexual violence, yet not a word has been mentioned about them over the past two weeks,” said a press release from Rape Crisis.

Police statistics show that for the period April 2005 to March 2006 there were 54 926 reported rape cases in South Africa. That means that 150 people (with a large percentage of these people being women and children) are being raped per day in this country and those are just the cases that are being reported to the police.

“Research indicates that one out of every nine rape survivors reports an incident of rape. The reality of rape in South Africa is therefore far higher than the current figures indicate,” Rape Crisis said.

“Rape could happen to our mothers, daughters, wives, girlfriends, sons, colleagues and team mates. Yet when it comes to national debates on crime we do not acknowledge it and parliament remains silent regarding rape and sexual violence when discussing crime,” the statement said. – (Health24)

Source: Press release from Rape Crisis

March 2007