NEWS
female
homicide
Every six hours a woman is killed by her intimate
partner according to Findings from the first National Study of Female
Homicide in South Africa
A woman is killed every 6 hours in South
Africa by her intimate partner. This is one of the key findings from the
first national study of female homicides in South Africa.
It was a collaborative study between researchers from the Medical Research
Council’s Gender & Health Group, the Division of Forensic Medicine
and Toxicology from the University of Cape Town and the Centre for the
Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
The study found that 50% of all women murdered in South Africa by known
perpetrators in 1999 were killed by men with whom they had an intimate
relationship. For this year (1999) 8.8 women out of every 100 000 women
aged 14 years and over were killed by their intimate partners.
“South Africa has the highest rate of intimate femicide of any country
in the world where it has been studied” says Dr Naeemah Abrahams,
Specialist Scientist in the MRC Gender & Health Group. “We are
particularly concerned about Coloured women, who have twice the risk of
other racial groups in South Africa,” said Dr. Abrahams.
An important finding was the role of legal guns in the murder of women by
their partners. One in every five of the perpetrators of intimate femicide
(20.6%) had a legal firearm. This finding points to the need for better
gun control and the seriousness of implementing the new Firearms Control
Act.
A worrying finding of the research was the low conviction rate of these known perpetrators. Only just over a third (35%) was convicted of the crime. Although South Africa has some of the best equipped forensic laboratories in the world these are rarely utilised to help convict women’s murderers. Samples were only sent for DNA analysis in 3.5% of cases. The study revealed serious weaknesses in investigation of women’s murders and prosecution of cases.
“The study shows us that most men are
literally getting away with murder. We need to start tackling intimate
femicide seriously as a key part of building gender equity in our society.
This is not really about death it’s about how we value women’s lives,”
said Dr. Abrahams.
A Policy Brief has been produced by the research team highlighting the
above findings and making recommendations on how the police, prosecutors
and the medical legal responses to female murders can be improved.
The aims of the study were to determine the size of the problem of
intimate femicide (the killing of a women by an intimate partner i.e. a
current and ex- husband or boyfriend, same sex partners etc) in the
country and what factors were associated with this extreme form and
consequence of domestic violence. A sample of mortuaries was used which
enabled extrapolation to a national incidence rate and a national picture
of risk factors. Female murders for 1999 were identified from mortuary
death registers and cases were followed via their police case number to
the investigating officer and police dockets. The study also collected
injury and pathology data from the post mortem reports.
For more information contact: MRC Gender & Health group, Dr Naeemah
Abrahams, Tel: 021 9380445/Cell: 082 4617542 or Shanaaz Mathews, Tel: 021
9380448/Cell: 083 2461676
© Medical Research Council of South Africa, 2001 - PO Box 19070, 7505
Tygerberg, South Africa HO Tel +27 (0)21 9380911 / Fax +27 (0)21 9380200
www.mrc.ac.za
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