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Almost one in four men surveyed in Asia said they committed rape at least once, in a study that may encourage renewed steps to prevent sexual violence.
More than 10,000 men were interviewed at nine sites in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka in the first multi-country survey on the prevalence of rape.
The men in the survey were questioned by trained male interviewers, and were left alone to record the answers to the most sensitive questions. The word “rape” wasn’t used. Men were asked indirect questions such as, “Have you ever forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex?”
Previous studies focused on female victims, said Rachel Jewkes of South Africa’s Medical Research Council, one of the authors of the article; research on the male perpetrators had been limited to a study in South Africa.
One in 10 men said they had raped a woman who wasn’t their partner, and when partners were included, 24% said they had committed rape.
Just under half of the perpetrators said they had raped more than one woman.
The most common reason men gave for the violence was sexual entitlement, followed by entertainment and the wish to punish the woman.
It was found that men who had been abused as children were more likely to commit rape. Men with a history of physical violence against a partner, or who had paid for sex or had had a large number of sexual partners were more likely to rape someone they didn’t know.
The numbers found do correspond with women’s accounts, Jewkes said, validating the report.
Since the research was limited to nine sites, the findings don’t represent the entire Asia-Pacific region, she added.
Also, the rates of violation differed between the sites: 11 percent of men questioned inBangladeshsaid they had committed rape, compared to 60 percent in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
The findings should encourage steps to prevent rape, such as supporting better parenting and promoting a more gender-equitable view of masculinity, the authors wrote.
The article was published on Tuesday in The Lancet Global Health journal.
The research is part of a wider United Nationsreporton violence against women released today. It was funded by UN agencies and programs, the governments of Australia, the U.K., Norway and Sweden.
