South Africa has a female homicide rate six times the global average, with half the murdered women killed by an intimate partner.
This is according to a recent study conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC) entitled “Exploring childhood adversity in the shaping of masculinities among men who killed an intimate partner in South Africa”.
The study, published in the British Journal of Criminology in June, states that studies estimate that between 43 and 56 percent of women in the country have experienced intimate partner violence and 42 percent of men report perpetration.
In 2004, the MRC conducted a study of female homicide in the country and found that “every six hours, a woman is killed by her intimate partner”.
Intimate femicide is the killing of a female person by an intimate partner, for example, by her current or ex-husband or boyfriend or same sex partner.
Dr Shanaaz Mathews, from the MRC, who was part of the team that conducted the study, said: “I interviewed 20 men in prison who had killed their partners and found that it was all about having power and control over the woman.
“I looked at the men’s childhoods and relationships and found there was a pattern of violence. It didn’t all happen out of the blue.”
One in Nine Campaign co-ordinator Carrie Shelver said the term “crimes of passion”, often used to label such crimes against women, “is extremely problematic and misleading”.
“The same standards are not applied to men, and so the judgment against women who cheat is harsher.
This form of violence needs to be understood as being patriarchal, controlling and a misogynist act, always abusive and always intentional.” - The Star