Citation

Rugwiji TT. Child Abuse Res. South Afr. 2017; 18(2): 50-58.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, South African Professional Society on the Abuse of Children)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Child sexual abuse has become a cause for concern in the world in general, and in South Africa in particular. While the number of victims of child sexual abuse continues to increase every day, the growing number of perpetrators are either vindicated by the societies in which they reside or their identities remain concealed due to family ties, which provide the abusers with the opportunity to continue this sadistic behaviour. While some victims of child sexual abuse consequently die, those who are fortunate to survive are stigmatised for life. This essay has been influenced largely by my personal experience of the sexual abuse of my sister Naomi, whom I suspect succumbed to death as a result of rape in the early 1970s. The main objective of this study is to demonstrate that while the South African society has been grappling with numerous cases of child sexual abuse since time immemorial, both neglect to protect vulnerable children and reluctance to report the prevalence of the phenomenon tends to promote the practice.

Language: en