- A pilot study on sexual violence in South Africa's urban
and rural schools has found that many pupils admitted raping other children
. The study, conducted by Community Information Empowerment and Transparency:
Africa among 9,300 children across the country, showed that between 12%
and 20% of boys and between 5% and 13% of girls in both urban and rural
areas admitted to having forced sex on children. Neil Andersson, executive
director of Ciet, presented the findings of the pilot study at the South
African Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect's national
conference in Durban this week. "We were shocked by the findings and
took the information back to focus groups at certain schools. The participants
brazenly admitted that they did have sex with other children without their
consent."
Andersson said the study showed that child-on-child rape is fast becoming
part of a "culture of sexual violence" in South Africa. "The
children believe that this is what they have to do to be successful in
life. "Girls in the 10 to 14 years age group made shocking revelations.
"Many claimed to have had sex with other children without their consent.
"They have tough attitudes about sex, similar to the attitudes of
adult men," Andersson said. Many girls from the 10- to 14 -year group
also expressed concern that they could be HIV-positive. "Focus groups
in this category admitted that girl-on-girl sex without consent and sex
between a group of girls against a boy was not uncommon. What is shocking
is that these children find it normal to engage in intercourse without
consent." The study also revealed that, by the age of 18, 30% of all
schoolgoers had been victims of sexual abuse. Linda Dhabicharan, deputy
director of Childline in Durban, attributed the increase in child-on-child
abuse to exposure to pornographic material, violent communities and a breakdown
in family life. Social workers and prosecutors are looking at using diversion
programmes, which will empower juvenile offenders with life skills to avoid
criminal behaviour, as an alternative to prosecution. In a paper presented
at the conference, Val Melis, from KwaZulu-Natal's Directorate of Public
Prosecutions, said that when dealing with juvenile sexual offenders, diversion
programmes required a delicate balancing of the rights of the child victim
and the rights of the juvenile offender.
"It is not uncommon to receive a police docket with details of a group
of 12- and 13-year-old children raping or sexually assaulting a 10-year-old
child. "The committing of sexual offences by young people is extremely
serious but the consequences of not dealing with such offenders effectively
at an early stage of their psycho-sexual development are even more serious,"
she said.
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- First posted to the web October 2, 2002
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- http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200210020252.html
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