Name: Anonymous 2007-11-08 1:50
Even with rape and sexual assault considered underreported crimes in South Africa, the numbers here are staggering: 54,926 reported rapes in 2006 for a country of 47 million, according to the South African Police Force. In the US, whose population is more than six times as large, there were less than double the number of reported rapes that same year – 92,455.
For girls, abuse often happens at school, studies show. The 2005 National Youth Victimization Survey, conducted by a team of academics, found that 23 percent of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 had been threatened or harassed at school, and 24 percent had been sexually assaulted at school. In a 1998 health survey, which Dr. Jewkes helped conduct, more than half the women who said they were raped before they turned 15 identified the perpetrator as a teacher.
In a new study that Jewkes is working on, she says a close review of thousands of police rape files also shows consistent investigative lapses – investigators losing track of a victim because they never asked for her phone number or address, for instance.
For girls, abuse often happens at school, studies show. The 2005 National Youth Victimization Survey, conducted by a team of academics, found that 23 percent of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 had been threatened or harassed at school, and 24 percent had been sexually assaulted at school. In a 1998 health survey, which Dr. Jewkes helped conduct, more than half the women who said they were raped before they turned 15 identified the perpetrator as a teacher.
In a new study that Jewkes is working on, she says a close review of thousands of police rape files also shows consistent investigative lapses – investigators losing track of a victim because they never asked for her phone number or address, for instance.