The Psychology of Rape

NATIONAL NEWS - It is estimated that a woman born in South Africa today, has a greater chance of being raped than of learning how to read.

A study by Interpol, the international police agency, revealed that South Africa leads the world in rape, with one adult woman being raped every 17 seconds - more than 1 300 rapes per day.

One in every three South African women, and one in every five men, will be raped during their lifetime. (Taking into account that not every individual will be raped, figures this high indicate that many victims will be raped more than once.)

Why do South Africans rape?
In short, there is no easy or conclusive answer and each incident needs to be examined separately. However, taking into consideration that South Africa’s rape statistics compete with those of countries at war, the pressing question remains: Why do so many individuals in this country deem rape as a legitimate act? What about the South African psyche allows an alarmingly large number of citizens to indulge in such inhumane behaviour?

Toxic social mix
Combining the findings of various researchers, several factors in South African society are said to play a role: The collective emotional health of a country (or lack thereof), influenced by consecutive generations who propagate a culture of fear and violence; power, economic and gender inequalities; a lack of male role-models, social skills and education; cultural beliefs; too early, constant and over-exposure to sexually enticing stimuli in the media, such as pornography and possibly even programmes aimed at sex education; and substance abuse.

Traumatised society
"In my opinion South Africa can be considered a traumatised society, exhibiting all the symptoms communally as if it were a traumatised individual," explains Knysna researcher and activist, Jenna-Lee Procter, founder of a non-profit organisation, Rape Outcry, which she launched in 2007.
"A traumatised person," says Procter, "will during a state of trauma either fight, take flight or freeze. As a traumatised society we collectively either fight by becoming more violent (reactive), or try to fight against the violence."
She feels that many South Africans have already chosen the flight option by trying to either geographically flee and escape by leaving the country, or by emotional disassociation, choosing not to see the vio-lence.
"All around us we can see South Africans in freeze mode - a society that feels so victimised by their seemingly increasing, uncontrollable circumstances that they feel overwhelmed by the threat, to the extent that they become apathetic and feel too hopeless to do anything."
Sadly, many South Africans thus watch in catatonic horror as the structures of the society they once relied upon, come tumbling down.

How some men view women
When anonymously questioned, more than 25% of a sample of 1 738 South African men of the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces admitted to raping someone. Of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person. This came to light in a non-peer reviewed policy brief issued by the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Adriana Stuijt’s article in Digital Journal (2009) reads: "In South Africa, power relations between men and women are commonly manifested as and imposed through sexual violence and assault. Men use physical assault to force sexual contact, beating their female partners if they refuse to have sex, or if they are found to be using contraceptives."
In the South African context, the abuse of power on many levels has filtered down right into the homes of families. Procter agrees: "One in five husbands in South Africa approves of slapping their wives, and children grow up thinking that is a way in which to handle relationships."

Researchers found that the power balance (or lack thereof) between different groups in any society, be it political, economical, cultural or gender-based, also play a pivotal part in the make-up of a people.

South African society’s challenges are by no means unique in relation to other developing countries. Why then does the country still have the highest rape statistics in the world, as well as one of the highest incidences of child and baby rape?
In attempting to find the social triggers which may allow South Africans to commit rape on the scale that they do, it has been proposed that one should take into consideration the country’s entire history - not just the era of apartheid. In following this line of research, some have argued that most South Africans have been exposed to some type of control by fear, either by a colonial force, a ruling elite, or competing cultural groups vying for power. Add to that gender inequality, and it could be argued there is a war raging in South African bedrooms that has entered the streets.

Stuijt’s article also speaks about another alarming South African youth cult activity, ‘jackrolling’, which refers to gang rape.
"Thousands of armed youth gangs in the sprawling township of Soweto near Johannesburg have just one aim - to impregnate every woman under age 26. They form hunting packs to find their victims each night," reports Stuijt.
"It is these (male-dominated) power relations which determine women's ability or inability to protect themselves against sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy, and unwelcome sexual acts."

Collective exhaustion
South Africans have grown so used to living under the constant threat of violence that the collective exhaustion, caused by the rapid moral decay of society, has gone almost unnoticed. Depending on how intense that exposure has been for the previous generation who now inflicts it on the current generation, the emotional symptoms are severe.

Lives shaped by fear
Clinical psychologist, Lane Benjamin describes the emotional world of a strata of South African children in gangster-ridden Hanover Park, which could easily also be made applicable to pockets of violent communities elsewhere in the country.
"Growing up in an environment of fear and danger is creating a generation of young people whose whole lives are shaped by threat. The children live in a systematically violent environment and grow up exposed to abuse in the home and violence in the streets," says Lane.
This shapes how these children perceive themselves, people around them and the world.

Unable to feel empathy
"There has been a definite shift in the youth’s capacity to process the impact of violence - the adaptive coping mechanism is to dissociate or an unconscious shutting out of traumatic events."
What this means in practical terms is that South Africa now produces children who are cut off from their own memories, feelings and emotions, as well as the people around them. Disconnected children who grow up to become disconnected individuals with a reduced capacity to feel empathy.
"It becomes easy to harm the next person."

Lane concludes that when a person feels powerless in his or her own life, exerting control over someone else, like a small child, your partner or a weaker peer, is one way of feeling powerful again.

What motivates rape?
Studies involving rapists indicate that their primary motives for committing rape include hatred, anger, a desire for power and a sense of entitlement to women's bodies. This does not mean that lust does not feature in rape (as is clear from research which shows strong links between serial rapists and addiction to pornography), but when lust is a factor, it is usually viewed as the physical manifestation of a much deeper, darker root cause.

Conclusion
When a moral and emotional vacuum exists in a society, it seems that it creates the breeding ground for many forms of anti-social behaviour, of which rape is one expression.
Such a society is usually rife with inequalities, layered by a culture of violence and fear, where morals have become eroded and substance abuse and corruption have become a way of life. In this downward spiral, dysfunctional communities are formed where unemployed, disempowered individuals create emotionally bankrupt families, who in turn produce children who perpetuate that disconnectedness.

In this emotionally barren landscape, where individuals are cut off from themselves as well as others, violating another human being (or animal), by either raping them or taking their life, becomes a valid means of temporarily regaining ‘power’ and ‘control’- where existence is futile and nothing has any meaning beyond instant satisfaction.

What needs to change?
"Firstly we need to accept the state of our country. You cannot address anything if you do not believe there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
People need to become more aware. Then we need to focus on providing proper support to survivors - we need to teach children about empathy and non-violent means to solve problems, and we also need to turn our attention to the rapists themselves," says Procter. "Justice is essential, and so is rehabilitation!"

NEXT WEEK:
How the new law defines rape, compared to the old law.
Profile of a rapist and different types of rape.

ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST

Working Wonders with Words

By Debbie Coetzee-Lachmann, a South African who has been living and working in Germany since 2002 and an Advisory Member of Rape Outcry's Executive Committee.

I love words, I always have. As a child, I used to read everything that came into my field of vision: the place names flashing by on Sundays as we drove from Pretoria to Germiston to visit with the family at my grandparent's place, the texts on the back of the Post Toasties box, the sign indicating the assortment in a Checkers isle. I love words so much, that I chose a job in which I daily teach others to use them correctly, appropriately and effectively.

An English lecturer at a small German university, I help students learn to use the English language, so that they have a fair chance as participants in the hectic global race. Coming to class bright-eyed and full of future plans, they bravely struggle their way through the "is and ares", the "would you nots?" and shed some blood and tears trying to get their tongues around the difficult English "th"-sound: "The six thick Smith sons still hang on to their money and guns. They stole it all those terrible thugs to sell and deal with booze and drugs." (J Having to compete with "CSI: Miami", an English lecturer must know her stuff if she wants to capture her students attention!)

Language is only one of a myriad of sign systems the human race has developed to express our thoughts and feelings, needs and desires and to regulate others and their activities. We also use numbers, pictures, gestures, paintings, movements, road signs, clothes and make-up – to name only a few of the means through which we send messages into the world. Language, however, is the most widely used of them all and probably therefore also the one used most carelessly.

I am sometimes deeply saddened by people's choice of words or lack of them. Nobody likes to hear: "You shouldn't have done that! It was really stupid!" or "Why can't you just for once do what I ask you to?" and everybody loves to hear "Good morning! How are you today?" and "Thank you very much!" And still, I often hear the first two string of words and regularly miss the latter two. I suspect that people take language and its power for granted, because it is so commonly available to us. Most people are blessed with the ability to hear and talk. Far fewer can express themselves through movement, like dancers do, or through colours, compositions and brush strokes, like painters can.

But words, if used lovingly and reflectively, can have an immensely positive impact, because they are understood by such a wide audience. Words can help us heal: we use them to comfort others and as a means to channel poison out of our system. Who has not felt the warmth flowing from a friend's sympathetic words: "I am so sorry to hear about your dad. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you."? And who has not felt the relief after a talk with the hairdresser or bartender in which one allowed oneself to talk one's sorrows right off one's heart. (Bless those wonderful people who play the role of soundboards in our society, absorbing all the negative energy sometimes locked up in our words and may they have a way of cleaning their own souls from all the debris we dump on the platforms they so lovingly offer us).

Words can be used to impart useful information and much needed wisdom, to teach and to entertain, to connect and to show respect, to pray and to praise, to inquire and to inspire.

I have found three ways to regularly remind myself of the power of words and improve my ability to work wonders with them. The first is by practicing the science of silence. I deliberately create pockets of time each day in which I am surrounded by nothing but a sea of quiet, only gently interrupted by the bobbing sound of a bird or my own breathing. I do not start a single day without at least thirty minutes of silent meditation during the early and peaceful hours of the morning. My lunch hour would be half less relaxing without the one third of it spent somewhere in a quiet corner of a restaurant or a park and driving home the radio remains switched off, so that my mind has space to think about the day and all it has held in for me. Words create mental and emotional spaces, because they trigger thoughts and feelings. Avoiding words every now and then is like going into an elegantly decorated room completely kept in off-white, where our minds can catch their breath, without having to react to a thousand colourful triggers. It is in these quiet spaces that we hear our souls speak.

Enjoying these moments of silence sharpen my awareness of the power of words: both to build and to break, so that when I use them, I try to use them carefully. Understanding that words always leave a trace somewhere in someone's heart and mind, my second way with words is best described by the words of Shakyamuni Buddha: "When you know something that is hurtful and untrue, do not say it. When you know something that is hurtful and true, do not say it. When you know something that is helpful and true, find the right time to say it." (Translated from the German "Worte des Dalai Lama", Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, 2004, p. 49).

Words should be weighed before they are spoken or written, because they carry energy in them. Test this for yourself: become aware of the sensations in your body as you are listening to a special poem or an uplifting speech and compare these to what you are feeling, when you hear people shout at each other or swear. Words affect us, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. It is therefore not only important to mind your own language, but to also be selective in terms of the type of language to which you regularly expose yourself.

Sometimes, putting our anger, sadness and fears into words can be very healing, though. However, if these are directed at people, they work like bullets that sooner or later ricochet – hitting others very hard and you when you least expect it. Finding a deserted firing range and giving yourself the freedom of verbal trigger happiness on the other hand, can be a very effective way of using words towards your own sanity. I learnt my third word trick from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" and Barbara Sher's "Wishcraft". In addition to a range of other wonderful exercises, Julia Cameron's book introduced me to the habit of "morning pages", while Barbara Sher's idea of a passionate gripe diary works wonders for my sanity. When I am sad or disappointed, angry or lost, I go to my deserted firing range – a red coach in a quiet corner of our yellow house. Armed with pen and paper, I write as fast and as much as my thoughts and emotions require. I fume and moan and scream and shout. I tease and tell and sob and yell. The uncontrolled stream of words work like knives cutting through the layers of ego until I reach the quiet pool of truth and clarity at my core. Obediently the words absorb my fears and misconceptions about the world, others and God, until only the truth remains – upon which I usually start laughing, because the truth has this wonderful tendency to be simple, beautiful and clear.

The power of language is truly am amazing gift. It enables us to express ourselves in emotionally moving, eloquent, nuanced, precise or humorous ways. For whichever purposes you might be using language today, may you be able to enjoy the magic of using your words lovingly – respecting your power and those of your words.