In South Africa and in other parts of the world, incidents of rape in general are underreported ( Jewkes, Nduna, Shai, & Dunkle, 2012 Jewkes, Sen, & Garcia-Moreno, 2002 Martin, 2002 Palermo, Bleck, & Peterman, 2013), but the incidence of rape where men are the primary victims remains even more underreported in the statistics and in research ( McDonald & Tijerino, 2013). Development of care or management guidelines and prevention interventions for sexual victimization specific to men as victims of rape lags behind in South Africa ( Van Niekerk et al., 2015). This has resulted in the development of care and management guidelines and sexual violence prevention interventions specific to these groups ( García-Moreno et al., 2015 World Health Organization, 2013). Although the law in the country, and in other parts of the world, recognizes rape against men, much attention from academics, politicians, and activists has been paid to women and children as the only victims of rape ( Cohen, 2014 Sigsworth, 2009).
The passing of this Act by the national parliament gave recognition to the rape victimization of men in South Africa which, before the passing of this law, was classified under indecent assault ( Artz & Smythe, 2008). This involves penetration to any extent by the genital organs of one person into or beyond genital organs, anus, or mouth of another person penetration by any other part of the body of one person or any object, including any part of the body of an animal into genital organs, anus, or mouth of another person ( Republic of South Africa, 2007).
32 of 2007, rape refers to unlawfully and intentionally act of sexual penetration to a person without his or her consent ( Republic of South Africa, 2007). According to the South African Criminal Law Amendment Act No. South Africa has been dubbed the “rape capital of the world” ( Gordon & Collins, 2013 Human Rights Watch, 2010) due to the high prevalence of rape of women, children, and men in the country. Activism is advocated to stop the silence around this public and social health issue. Furthermore, future studies are recommended to expose this pandemic. 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. The findings reveal the different contexts or settings where men are vulnerable to rape. 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. 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 objective of this study was to first determine and then describe, the types of rape experienced by 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. Although rape affects the community in general, there is a paucity of literature on rape victimization of men. Globally, rape is regarded as the most demoralizing type of trauma, and it has negative implications for victims and their families.