Women's experiences of reporting rape to the police : a qualitative study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The issue of rape in South Africa has been widely documented and debated in the form ofacademic, legal, governmental and media reports. The statistics that inform us both of theincidence of rape and the number of women who report rape to the police have beenvehemently contested. Secondary victimization of rape survivors by police, medical andlegal officials, has been reported internationally in studies conducted in the UnitedKingdom, the United States and South Africa. The present study explored 16 women'sexperiences of reporting rape to the police in historically disadvantaged communities.Qualitative semi-structured interviews were aimed at eliciting information about thenature of their experiences with the police and how their complaints were responded toand dealt with by police personnel. Six categories and 18 themes emerged out of agrounded theory analysis performed on the data. All of the participants were reportedlydissatisfied with the manner in which they were treated or the way in which their caseswere handled by the South African Police Service (SAPS). The results implied theexistence of rape myths in police official's attitudes towards rape survivors, and the needto create awareness around the rights of rape survivors who report rape to the police, aswell as to educate police officers with regards to the sensitivity of the issue of rape.Keywords: rape myths; secondary victimization; police; survivors; criminal justicesystem; feminism; gender relations; rape in South Africa.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University