A profile of rape during residential robberies in Gauteng, South Africa between 2002 and 2012
Date
2016-07-27
Authors
Chowles, Jacqui
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Abstract
Despite the often publicised occurrence of residential robberies being accompanied with additional forms of violence there is a limited amount of research exploring these forms of intersecting violence, specifically within the South African context. The latest statistics released by the South African Police Service (2015) indicate that residential robberies are continuing to increase. The co-occurrence of rape in such residential robberies is under-studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore and describe a profile of residential robberies that are accompanied by rape in Gauteng, South Africa between 2002 and 2012. This was done by exploring the temporal, sociodemographic and situational factors related to reported instances of this crime. The study consisted of cases obtained by the Crime Administration System (CAS). The study focused specifically on instances of reported residential robbery, in Gauteng. Overall there were 68178 cases analysed, with 1104 cases containing instances of reported co-occurring rape. The initial descriptive results indicated that specific variables significantly influence the co-occurrence of rape during a residential robbery. Whereby, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of rapes co-occurring within the 2002 to 2012 period Additionally, binary logistic regression analysis showed that Black females between the ages of 12 and 17 years are the demographic group most at risk when other situational factor are additionally present. Other findings of the regression indicate that there is an increased risk of a rape co-occurring during the residential robbery; over the weekend, between the hours of 00:00 and 06:59 and when no firearm is used as the method of entry or during the residential robbery. Overall, the study present significant findings related to this specific co-occurring crime and a number of areas that can be further explored in relation to the co-occurrence of rape during residential robbery and other forms of co-occurring violence, specifically in the context of South Africa
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Community-based Counselling Psychology on 15 March 2016