Abstract
BackgroundInterventions to prevent rape perpetration must be designed to address its drivers. This paper seeks to extend understanding of drivers of single and multiple perpetrator rape (referred to here as SPR and MPR respectively) and the relationships between socio-economic status, childhood trauma, peer pressure, other masculine behaviours and rape.Method1370 young men aged 15 to 26 were interviewed as part of the randomised controlled trial evaluation of Stepping Stones in the rural Eastern Cape. We used multinomial to compare the characteristics of men who reported rape perpetration at baseline. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine pathways to rape perpetration.Results76.1% of young men had never raped, 10.0% had perpetrated SPR and 13.9% MPR. The factors associated with both MPR and SPR (compared to never having raped) were indicators of socio-economic status (SES), childhood trauma, sexual coercion by a woman, drug and alcohol use, peer pressure susceptibility, having had transactional sex, multiple sexual partners and being physically violent towards a partner. The SEM showed the relationship between SES and rape perpetration to be mediated by gender inequitable masculinity. It was complex as there was a direct path indicating that SES correlated with the masculinity variable directly such that men of higher SES had more gender inequitable masculinities, and indirect path mediated by peer pressure resistance indicated that the former pertained so long as men lacked peer pressure resistance. Having a higher SES conveyed greater resistance for some men. There was also a path mediated through childhood trauma, such that men of lower SES were more likely to have a higher childhood trauma exposure and this correlated with a higher likelihood of having the gender inequitable masculinity (with or without the mediating effect of peer pressure resistance).DiscussionBoth higher and lower socio-economic status were associated with raping. Prevention of rape perpetration must focus on changing men’s gender ideals, entitlements and inequitable practices. Reducing poverty and adverse childhood experiences should also be of benefit.
Highlights
Rape may be perpetrated by men on their own, or with others and in all populations studied, a fairly high proportion of the adult male population disclose having ever raped[1, 2]
There was a path mediated through childhood trauma, such that men of lower socio-economic status (SES) were more likely to have a higher childhood trauma exposure and this correlated with a higher likelihood of having the gender inequitable masculinity
This study has shown that the central task of interventions to prevent rape must be to change the socialisation of boys and young men to build more gender equitable ideals of masculinity
Summary
Interventions to prevent rape perpetration must be designed to address its drivers. This paper seeks to extend understanding of drivers of single and multiple perpetrator rape (referred to here as SPR and MPR respectively) and the relationships between socio-economic status, childhood trauma, peer pressure, other masculine behaviours and rape. Data Availability Statement: Data are from the Stepping Stones trial. The dataset is owned by the South African Medical Research Council. The authors may be contacted at the South African Medical Research Council (email: rjewkes@mrc.ac.za) to request access to data used in the paper. The main variables on rape perpetration are not publicly available due to the sensitive nature of the data.
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