- Title
- Psychosocial effects of court verdicts on children as rape victims : a case study of Queenstown area, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Creator
- Lupuwana, Vuyokazi Phumza Pearl
- Subject
- Rape victims -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Rape victims -- Services for -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Victims of crimes -- Legal status, laws, etc
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Doctoral
- Type
- PhD
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/9821
- Identifier
- vital:35015
- Description
- The motivation for this study originated from the problem of children who are being neglected after they have given evidence in the court of law. The researcher also noticed that when children were giving evidence, some were still showing signs of trauma and were crying throughout the proceedings. The researcher became aware that most of the children were never referred to social service professionals for counselling and after care services. The goal of the research was to explore the psycho-social effects of court verdicts on children as rape victims. The aim of the study was to determine the effects, challenges, emotional development and consequences, experience and reactions of rape and sexually assaulted child victims after the court verdict has been adjudicated. This was a case study of the Queenstown Area, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The purpose was to identify gaps as there are minimal services rendered to rape victims after the court verdict has been adjudicated in the South African context so as to formulate strategies that can be framed in order to work effectively with the victims and their immediate families. In order to reach the research goal, the following objectives were presented: To examine the after-effects of rape to children as victims of rape. To investigate the challenges the victims of rape are facing in their communities. To investigate the impact of giving evidence in the court of law by children who are victims of rape. To examine the after-effects of court verdicts on children who are victims of rape. To establish the kind of support provided to children by social networks after they have given evidence in the court of law. To investigate the kind of support provided by social service as well as legal professionals to children as victims of rape. In order to meet the objectives of the study, interviews were conducted to 30 victims of rape (both boys and girls) and data were analyzed according to the qualitative data – analysis procedures. The researcher also conducted literature review on core concepts (such as victims, rape and the legal perspectives of rape) pertaining to the topic under study in order to refer the findings of the study to literature. The researcher utilized the grounded theory research design. The research domain where the interviews took place was at the Queenstown Area under the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development magistrate jurisdiction (McBride, Lesseyton, Mlungisi Township, Komani Township, Molteno, Sterkstroom Dordrecht and Indwe). In this study, 30 Xhosa speaking children of different ages, gender, educational standards, socio-economic backgrounds as well as those who suffered different types of rape, as defined by the Sexual Related Matters Act 32 of 2007; they were all interviewed through use of a semi-structured interview schedule. The respondents were selected with the help of the Department of Justice and Constitutional development as well as South African Police Services (SAPS) based on their suitability to provide information rich data. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed according to the grounded theory analysis procedures. The following conclusions regarding the study were made: There is lack of implementation of Children’s Rights by professionals working with victims of rape. Children were never informed about the sentences imposed to the offenders. Focus group (professionals) participants acknowledged the fact that there is no compensation given to victims in a South African court of Law. Registering the offender is not benefitting the victim as the offender is sometimes appealing the judgement and sentencing. There are no adequate services rendered by social services professionals to rape victims, especially children. In most cases, they were never referred to any professionals for services following the rape incident. There are no aftercare services for children after giving evidence in the court of law. Children as victims of rape as well as their immediate families must be continuously referred to specialist to get therapeutic services. There is lack of forensic professionals working with children as victims of rape in Eastern Cape. Children as victims of rape are secondary victimized by relatives of the perpetrators after the sentence has been adjudicated. When there is no support provided by family members, victims are more likely to drop out of school. Members of the community lack information on the concept rape, and knowledge that everybody in South Africa can be raped.
- Format
- 277 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | LUPUWANA VUYOKAZI PUMZA PEARL (THESIS) 2018.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |