Child Abuse Research in South Africa

At primary prevention level, appropriate knowledge and awareness remain the first line of defence against child sexual abuse. This article provides a gendered analysis of the influence of a lifeskills programme on the sexual abuse knowledge of adolescents who live in impoverished and marginalised settings. A pre/post-test design was used to gather data from 348 adolescents by means of group-administered surveys prior to and after the weeklong residential programme. The pre-intervention results showed lower levels of knowledge among male respondents regarding statements on what child sexual abuse is and statistically significant improvements in this regard were recorded at post-intervention. However, their knowledge still remained lower compared to that of female respondents. Respondents’ knowledge regarding the nature of child sexual abuse suggests the continuation of gender stereotypes which may hamper effective identification and reporting of sexual abuse. Nevertheless, the lifeskills programme demonstrated value in strengthening adolescents’ knowledge of child sexual abuse. It is recommended that future programmes be sensitive to the gendered pre-knowledge of adolescents when providing training on sexual abuse. Research is needed to determine why the programme failed to impact positively on some adolescents’ knowledge about child sexual abuse.

In South Africa the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) is high but the rate of successful prosecution is low. The legal system places unwarranted emphasis on the J88 form which is often unable to support the legal process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of health professionals to the legal process in cases of CSA. The objectives were to describe the profile of CSA in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN); to evaluate the completion of the J88 form; the accuracy of the interpretation of clinical findings and the appropriateness of the conclusion reached. A retrospective review of 339 J88 forms of children under 12 years who were sexually abused between 1 January-31 December 2009 was undertaken. Of these forms 52 had missing pages, 201 had sections crossed out, and only 86 were complete. For the purpose of this study all forms were analysed. The median age of survivors was 7 years, 86.4% were female, and 49% from an urban area. In 52.2% of cases the abuse was penetrative, and in 48.4% the perpetrator was known to the survivor. There were more abnormalities noted in the genital findings (58.1%) than in anal findings (17.3%).No form displayed 100% median completeness for all sections. Overall, the private sector had completed the forms the best. Interpretation of genital findings (49.6%) was more common than an interpretation of anal findings (29.8%), but there were more correct interpretations of anal (64.4%) than genital (53.6%) findings. An assessment of the occurrence of the likelihood of sexual abuse was done in 8.3% of genital findings and 3.2% of anal findings. This assessment was appropriate in 35.7% of genital findings and 36.4% of anal findings. These findings confirm that there is inadequate completion of J88's, with inaccurate conclusions, which can negatively affect legal outcomes.

This article briefly reports on the results of an explorative study pertaining to the behavioural profile of male serial child rapists. An extensive literature review indicated that there is a dearth of research relating to the serial rape of children, especially in South Africa. As the first study in South Africa to explore the modus operandi employed by serial child rapists, the research conducted by Hall (2018)1 produced findings which contribute to the scant body of knowledge regarding child serial rapists. A qualitative document case study approach was undertaken in two phases. The first phase entailed a content analysis of police case dockets followed by the second phase where semi-structured interviews were conducted with field experts; this article only reports on the first phase of the study. The research was underpinned, by the routine activities theory which highlighted that children fall victim to serial child rapists as they intersect at a time and place during their daily activities. Most often, children are left vulnerable due to a lack of guardianship. The results showed that serial child rapists tend to operate consistently, exhibiting similar predatory patterns, especially in their approach methods. The exploration of serial child rapists also revealed two distinct profiles, namely opportunists and groomers. However, investigators should consider using already known profile variables of serial rapists when investigating child rape cases because the general behavioural profile of serial rapists in South Africa who target adults is not dissimilar from that of serial rapists who target children.