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The virgin cleansing myth: cases of child rape are not exotic

2002; Elsevier BV; Volume: 359; Issue: 9307 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(02)07794-2

1474-547X

Rachel Jewkes, Lorna J. Martin, Loveday Penn‐Kekana,

Child Abuse and Trauma

Graeme Pitcher and Douglas Bowley, in their Jan 26 Commentary1Pitcher GJ Bowley DMG Infant rape in South Africa.Lancet. 2002; 359: 274-275Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar, suggest that the myth, that having sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV-1 infection, is an important cause of child rape. We wish to dispute this assertion. Cases have been reported in which this myth was a motivating factor for child rape, but most evidence suggests that this motivation is infrequent. Luke Lamprecht, manager of the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg, which is the referral point for all child sex abuse cases in the metropolis, is reported as saying that he has seen only one child rape case in which the perpetrator believed the myth.2L Altenroxel, Baby rapists are not paedophiles. Pretoria News 2001; Dec 6.Google Scholar The rape occurred 4 years ago, and the mother agreed that the HIV-1-positive man could rape her daughter in exchange for cash. The 1% seroconversion rate in the child rape series in Cape Town3van As AB Withers M Du Toit N Millar AJW Rode H Child rape-patterns of injury, management and outcome.S Afr Med J. 2001; 91: 1035-1038PubMed Google Scholar, to which Pitcher and Bowley refer, mostly in the absence of antiretroviral therapy, would also suggest that this is not an important cause of rape. If it had been, given the extensive injuries common in child rape, a higher rate of seroconversion would be expected. There is no evidence overall that infant rapes are increasing in South Africa, nor that rape perpetrators, some of whom have been apprehended, know they have HIV-1 infection. In more than a decade's work as a district surgeon and forensic pathologist, LM has seen raped babies periodically, but the numbers have not risen. The perception of a rising rate may be related to the media giving a few cases prominence. Five rapes have been identified in a 2-month period, but at least one was probably a copy cat crime. One, and probably two, were associated with Cape Town gang-initiation rituals, which are notoriously brutal. Many people in South Africa have been extremely brutalised by the political violence in the country's past, the disruption of families and communities, high levels of poverty, and the very high levels of violence of all forms. The direction of much of this violence at women and girls might be explained by sex inequalities, a culture of male sexual entitlement, and the climate of relative impunity for rape.4R Jewkes, N Abrahams, The epidemiology of rape and sexual coercion in South Africa: an overview. Soc Sci Med (in press).Google Scholar The root of the problem of infant rape, as for rape of older girls and women, lies mainly at these more mundane doors, and it should be seen as part of the spectrum of sexual violence against women and girls. Infant and child rape will be prevented only if these issues can be ameliorated. Community definitions of rape need to be reframed so that all acts of coercive sex are viewed as rape, irrespective of the circumstances, and develop an environment in which men are deterred from rape through threat of punishment. To make this change more resources are needed for expanding the provision of medical staff trained in sexual assault examination and extending police and social work capacity for investigating and assisting rape cases.