The Medical Research Council(MRC) of South Africa condcuted a study on the interface of rape and HIV in South Africa.
The study was conducted in three districts in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal Provinces interviewing men from 1,738 households in rural,urban and city premises. 70 % of the men were under 30 years of age.
The results were so stunning that of all the men interviewed, one in every four had raped a woman or a girl. To talk exactly in figures, 27.6% of the men interviewed had raped a woman and 4.6% had raped in the past year. And nearly one in every two men who raped (46.3%) said that they raped more than one woman or a girl.This 46.3% is the sum of 23.2% men who said they raped 2-3 women,8.4% men who said they raped 4-5 women,7.1% men who said they raped 6-10 and 7.7% men who said they raped more than 10 women or girls.
While 14.3 % of men disclosed that they raped their partner or ex-girlfriend, 9.7% of these have also raped strangers which means 4.6% of men had raped a partner and not raped a woman who was not a partner.
When asked about their age when they raped for the first time 46.5% fell into the 15-19 years category and there were 9.8% men who started rapes when they were under 10 years old.
Rape of men or boys was also reported and 2.9% said that they had done this. Age was significantly associated with the likelihood of having raped, with men aged 20-40 were more likely to have raped than younger or older men. Men who raped were more likely to have occasional work and less likely to have never worked at all.
The HIV prevalance among men who had raped was 19.6% and 18.1% among those who had never raped. Men who had raped another man had a higher prevalance of HIV(27.8 %).
What has previously been suspected, but not shown in research, is that men who are physically violent towards their intimate partners are more likely to have HIV. In all 42.4% of men had been physically violent to an intimate partner (current or exgirlfriend or wife).
While South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape reported to the police in the world and the largest number of people living with HIV, the rapes reported to police are only a small proportion of the actual.The interviews conducted were administered via APDAs (Audio-enhanced Personal Digital Assistants).
Read the detailed report by Medical Reasearch Council of South Africa here.
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