Experiences of Gender-Based Violence at a South African University: Prevalence and Effect on Rape Myth Acceptance

Abstract

Instances of gender-based violence (GBV) on university campuses are rarely reported to the authorities. This makes it difficult to gauge the prevalence of this problem, which in turn affects efforts for prevention. This article describes a university-wide online survey aimed at assessing, first, the prevalence of GBV experienced by the three sectors in the community-students, academic and research staff, and professional/administrative staff. Many of the findings concurred with research elsewhere-students were the predominant victims of GBV; men were the main perpetrators; and instances of rape occurred mainly when the victim/survivor was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In contrast to some of the more well-known U.S. surveys (e.g., Georgetown University), we found relatively few instances of students being exploited by staff members. Occurrences of contrapower harassment were also reported in our survey. The second aim investigated whether rape myth acceptance was related to experiences of GBV. We found that women who had these experiences were more rejecting of rape myths than women who had not had such experiences. The opposite was found for White men. White men who had experienced GBV were more accepting of the rape myths than those who had not had such experiences. It was suggested that this reflected a need for these male victims to establish their hegemonic masculine identity. In general, the level of rape myth acceptance was relatively low. This suggested that widespread victim-blame, and self-blame does not account for the low levels of GBV reports to officials. A limitation of the study was the relatively low response rate (1,350 respondents), which was likely caused by the student protests over university fees that were ongoing at the time of the survey. These protests caused considerable disturbance for all sectors of the university community.

To add insult to injury: Stigmatization reinforces the trauma of rape survivors – Findings from the DR Congo

“…Another predictor of rape myths acceptance was the witnessing of others' sexual victimization. This is an important finding as research has widely neglected differences in stigmatizing attitudes based on own experiences with sexual violence beyond the differentiation between victimization vs no victimization ( Baugher et al, 2010 ; Carmody & Washington, 2001 ; Finchilescu & Dugard, 2018 ; Mason et al, 2004 ). Witnessing sexually violent acts against others' not only evokes an enormous emotional burden (witnessing threats to others' lifes has been defined itself as potentially traumatizing event, The American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ) but also likely increases the awareness of threat to one's own life (salience of sexual victimization).…”

“… Ferdowsian et al (2018) reported that professionals in the health care and juridical sector in Kenya and Eastern DRC hold stigmatizing attitudes and affirm that survivors ‘got what they deserve’ (7%), should feel ashamed for what they have done (9%), if they found out that a family member was victimized they would want it to remain a secret (18%) and they would not be willing to care for an affected family member (6%). Research on survivors' internalization of rape myths remains inconclusive and shows either similar ( Carmody & Washington, 2001 ; Mason et al, 2004 ) or less affirmations compared to individuals without a history of sexual victimization ( Baugher et al, 2010 ; Finchilescu & Dugard, 2018 ). The use of different measures may be one reason accounting for the mixed results.…”

Prevalence and correlates of sexual violence among adolescent girls and young women: findings from a cross-sectional study in a South African university

“…Although there seems to be an increasing sensitisation to this pressing problem across various countries, there is still a low rate of reporting. The weak justice system, shame, fear of not being believed, and social norms such as the "rape myth" are some of the factors that hinder proper reporting of incidences by victims [ 20 , 21 ]. Choo and Dunne[ 22 ] also implicated a low level of awareness of the various forms of sexual violence activities, especially the non-penetrative acts as another factor contributing to the low reportage of the incidence among the victims.…”

Prevalence and correlates of sexual violence among adolescent girls and young women: findings from a cross-sectional study in a South African university

“…Although there seems to be an increasing sensitisation to this pressing problem across various countries, there is still a low rate of reporting. The weak justice system, shame, fear of not being believed, and social norms such as the "rape myth" are some of the factors that hinder proper reporting of incidences by victims [20,21]. Choo and Dunne [22] also implicated a low level of awareness of the various forms of sexual violence activities, especially the non-penetrative acts as another factor contributing to the low reportage of the incidence among the victims.…”