One in four men in South Africa admit to rape, according to a new study by the country’s Medical Research Council.

Of the 1738 men who were surveyed, 28 percent said they had raped a woman or girl, and three percent said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half of those who carried out rape admitted that they had done so more than once.

Professor Rachel Jewkes who conducted the survey says:

“We have dominant ideas about masculinity in South Africa which are based on the idea that men should be in control of women and that men are in the superior position hierarchically towards women, and that provides a framework that legitimates men doing whatever they can to women, including forcefully taking sex from women where they’re able to actually carry it out.”

Risk of HIV
The study was carried out in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. It found that three out of four rapists were teenagers when they first attacked. One in 20 men admitted that they had raped a woman or girl in the last year. And worryingly, Professor Jewkes said that the study found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV positive.

“I think what that points to is this clustering of male violent and anti-social behaviour which are all rooted from an underlying idea of masculinity. It legitimates the men having multiple partners, engaging in transactional sex, engaging in other forms of risky behaviour which are the reasons you see such a high prevalence of HIV in that group.”

Open season for misogyny
Anti-rape campaigners say the shocking figures demonstrate the need for reform of the criminal justice system. Currently, only seven percent of reported rape cases lead to conviction. Although South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma was acquitted of rape charges against a family friend, the way that the alleged victim was vilified in public and in the media has done little to encourage victims to come forward.

Professor Jewkes says misogyny is rife and it is not just Jacob Zuma who should be brought to task over his comments:

“It’s not just him. There are other people who are senior and very influential in the political arena in South Africa who publicly express highly misogynistic and rape-supportive attitudes who experience no visible public sanctioning from their peers. And basically, that sends a message that the view from the top is that it’s open season for misogyny and for attacks on women and really we have to counter that.”