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A new HSRC study, entitled Partner Violence, Attitudes to Child Discipline and Use of Corporal Punishment, indicates that nearly 20% of South African men and women have experienced violent physical assault in their domestic relationships, either as perpetrators, victims, or both. This is almost 25% higher than in the United States. Women are twice as likely to be victims as their male partners and more men, in the lower income brackets, assault their partners than in higher income groups. Another finding is that partner violence is more prevalent in relationships where the partners are cohabiting rather than married. Poorly educated and younger women are most at risk of being involved in a physically abusive relationship. In accounting for the high levels of partner violence found in the study, it is important to bear in mind the role played by deeply entrenched norms regarding the legitimacy of male power and the use of force, writes Professor Andy Dawes, Director of the Child, Youth and Family Development Research Programme of the HSRC in the latest HSRC Review. Dawes points to other studies, conducted by the Medical Research Council, which have shown that a significant proportion of South African women believe that it is appropriate that they obey their male partners because these men have the right to discipline them. Where these beliefs are evident, women are more likely to be assaulted. Regarding intervention in partner abuse, the report suggests that in addition to legal and policy interventions, changing the collective norms, attitudes and behaviour of both men and women is essential. "The message is: start young", says Dawes. "Challenges to patriarchal and abusive gender relations should feature prominently in the life-orientation programmes of our schools." The study also questioned nearly 1 000 parents with children on corporal punishment. It showed that 57% of the participants reported using corporal punishment, with 33% using severe corporal punishment (beating with a belt, stick or other object). These proportions are lower than non-representative studies conducted elsewhere in Africa, and somewhat lower than figures collected in the US and Britain. Younger South African parents are less likely to use corporal punishment than older parents, and cultural patterns are evident in the findings that Indian and Asian parents are least likely to smack their children, while black Africans and whites are more likely to beat their children with a stick or similar object, says Dawes. Download a copy of the full report or e-mail media@hsrc.ac.za to request a copy.
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