Voicing the lived experiences of young men incarcerated for raping elderly women

Abstract

Despite the fact that sexual violence affects its victims regardless of age, race, and physical appearance, literature on sexual assault has predominantly focused on young female victims of this form of violence. Rape perpetrated against elderly women is rarely reported in the literature; however, recent media reports in South Africa have increasingly focused on such sexual assaults. Rape has an enduring impact on the lives and health of the victims, their families, and their communities. Jones and Powell (2006, p. 212) noted that "The age of the victim should not reduce societal response to theproblem." The invisibility of elderly women as victims of sexual abuse needs urgent redress, both in research and clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the lived experiences of young isiZulu-speaking South African men who had raped elderly women in KwaZulu-Natal Province. It was an attempt to unveil the world as experienced by the young perpetrators of sexual violence against elderly women through an interpretation of their lifeworld stories. This included exploring and understanding the situations they have faced and how they have made sense of their personal and social worlds. This research was guided by van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenology. More specifically, van Manen's lifeworld existentials were used as a theoretical and methodological framework to fully illuminate the lived experiences of the young perpetrators of sexual violence against elderly women. The four lifeworld existentials that guided this inquiry were lived body (corporeality), lived space (spatiality), lived time (temporality), and lived other (human relations). Van Manen (1997, 2016) contends that the lived experiences of all human beings can be understood as corresponding to these four lifeworld existentials, regardless of cultural, historical, or social contexts. This qualitative interpretive study was informed by social constructivist principles. The researcher used purposive sampling to recruit ten young isiZulu-speaking South African men between the ages of 18 and 30 years, who are incarcerated for raping elderly women in KwaZulu-Natal Province to share their life stories. Semi-structured interviews, which were conducted in isiZulu, were used to collect data from the research participants. Only offenders whose cases had been finalised, and were not appealing their sentences, were interviewed. All the interviews took place at the Correctional Centre. According to van Manen (1997, 2016), hermeneutic phenomenology is not only a method of research but rather both a theoretical perspective and a research methodology; it is a strategy or plan that lies behind the methods employed in a particular study. Therefore, van Manen's lifeworld existentials were used as a thematic method of analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of the participants in this study. The key themes that emerged were: (1) multiple losses that disrupt secure attachment; (2) abuse by family members after the death of a parental figure; (3) abject food insecurity, leading to theft and other criminal activities; (4) polygamy, resulting in conflict and fear of witchcraft; (5) anger and displaced aggression; (6) gradual desensitisation; (7) gerontophilia; and (8) use of shame to disempower and manipulate victims.