“As I Was Walking Down the Street, Four Strange Guys Came and Took Me Under the Bridge, Where They All Raped Me”: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Types of Rape Experienced by Men in South Africa

Abstract

Globally, rape is regarded as the most demoralizing type of trauma, and it has negative implications for victims and their families. Although rape affects the community in general, there is a paucity of literature on rape victimization of men. As a result, the types of rape experienced by them are not understood, and thus it is often difficult to develop contextually relevant interventions to prevent male rape and to support male rape victims. The objective of this study was to first determine and then describe, the types of rape experienced by men. An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) qualitative approach was used to collect and analyze data from a purposive sample of 11 participants, using semistructured individual interviews. The findings of the study reveal six themes and related subthemes as six types and related subtypes of rape experienced by men as follows: acquaintance rape, including familial rape; stranger rape; gang rape, including corrective-gang rape, drug-facilitated gang rape, pack-hunting rape, women retributive rape (or women vengeance) for violence experienced from men; homophobic rape; prison rape, including transactional rape and gang initiation rape; and armed rape. The findings reveal the different contexts or settings where men are vulnerable to rape. This highlights the possibilities for the development of context-specific sexual violence prevention interventions for men, which include self-defense training and awareness campaigns specific to rape victimization of men. Furthermore, future studies are recommended to expose this pandemic. Activism is advocated to stop the silence around this public and social health issue.

“They destroyed my life because I do not feel like a man anymore”: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Men's lived experiences of rape victimization

“…Data collection commenced with a pilot study which was conducted with the first three participants to determine the shortcomings from the recruitment strategy, to check whether the participants could easily understand the interview questions and to determine any potential ethical issues that could arise during data collection and thus affect the credibility of the main study. The data collected from the pilot study were included in the data for the main study for data analysis because the same recruitment strategy was used and no ethical issues were identified (Duma, 2006;Duma et al, 2009;Mgolozeli and Duma, 2019). In this study, data collection and data analysis occurred concurrently over four months between August and November 2018.…”

“…The voluntary participation was also highlighted on the information sheet and a verbal explanation of the study's aim, participants' rights, risks and benefits, and the recruitment strategy was given to participants. All participants were reimbursed with ZAR150 for their travel expenses for the interviews and for their time (Duma et al, 2009;Mgolozeli and Duma, 2019;Sullivan and Cain, 2004).…”

“They all laughed and asked me if I enjoyed having sex with those guys”: Exploring men’s lived experiences when reporting rape to police in South Africa

“…Participants were made aware that their participation in the study was voluntary, and they were free to withdraw at any time if they were uncomfortable. Participants were reimbursed with an amount of ZAR150 for their traveling expenses and time as supported by other researchers in the field of sexual violence [6,45,46]. Participants were reassured that their real names would not be made available to any other party during the study and reporting of the research findings; instead, pseudonyms would ensure anonymity and confidentiality.…”

“…This could be related to the fact that homophobic violence is more common in South Africa where perpetrators also use rape to show hatred and disapproval of people who belong to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community [78][79][80]. A recent study by Mgolozeli and Duma [6] on types of rape experienced by men also found homophobic rape as another type of rape experienced by men in South Africa. Rape is also a form of anti-gay hate crime committed against members of the LGBTQI community, and these victims often choose not to report to the police to avoid disclosing their sexual orientation [81].…”

“…In South Africa, a country known as the rape capital of the world [6,7], the annual statistics from the South African Police Services (SAPS) on rape cases reveal an increase from 40 035 in 2017 and 2018 to 41 583 cases during 2018 and 2019 [8]. However, it is essential to note that these figures are the total of all rape cases for the general population, including women, men, and children [9].…”