1. The Lived Experience
of Male Intimate Partners of Rape Victims
in Cape Town, South Africa
19th Qualitative Health Research Conference
at Halifax, Canada, 27-29 October 2013
Dr. E. van Wijk
Western Cape College of Nursing, Cape Town, South Africa
Evalina.vanWijk@westerncape.gov.za

2. Outline
 Introduction and Related Background
 Aim and Research Question
 Research Design
 Data Analysis / Trustworthiness
 Findings / Discussion
 Implications of Findings
 Recommendations

3. Introduction and Related Background
• Sexual violence in South Africa:
Major public health / social problem
• SA statistics inaccurate (under-reported)
Do not reflect extent of sexual assault on women
• Rape - traumatic event - disrupts BOTH partners lives
• The male intimate partner often expected to support
the female partner

4. Introduction and Related Background
• Both the rape victim and her intimate partner displayed
cognitive, behavioural and affective reactions post-rape
• Seldom is he assessed for psychological problems and
difficulties he may experience resulting from the trauma
• Lack of adequate interventions / support programs
for male intimate partners of rape victims
• Affects Male Intimate Partners’ daily occupational / social
functioning
(Remer 2007 & Smith 2005)

5. Aim and Research Question
Aims:
• To explore, analyse and interpret the lived experience of
male intimate partners of female rape victims and the
meaning of this experience in the six months post-rape
• To develop a conceptual framework
Research Question:
“What constitutes an intimate partner’s experience of living with
a rape victim within the first six months post-rape?”

6. Research Design
• Longitudinal hermeneutic phenomenological study;
Male intimate partners (MIP’s) interviewed over six months
• Focus on interpretation of language and meanings of
individuals’ experiences
• Why six-month study period ?
• Study Location:
-
Recruitment centre for comprehensive treatment / support
of rape- & sexual assault victims
-
Low socio-economic area of Cape Town

7. Study Population and Sampling
• Male intimate partners of female rape victims who received
treatment at selected rape centre
• Participants sampled / recruited if:
-
In intimate relationship with female rape victim before
and immediately after rape event
(as revealed by rape victim to the nursing staff)
-
Older than 18 years
-
Able to communicate - isiXhosa, English or Afrikaans
-
Voluntarily contacted researcher within 14 days of learning
of study - willingness to participate for six month period

8. Study Population and Sampling
Difficulties:
• Not all rape victims informed of study
• Others who had been informed of study:
- chose not to participate
- hesitant to inform partners
Nine intimate partners agreed to participate.

9. Gaining Access to Rape Victim via RCC
• After ethical approval obtained from UCT
• Medical and Nursing staff informed about nature / purpose
of study
• If rape victim not too distressed, staff informed her of study
• If interested, met researcher - private room
• Study explained - information document given
• Potential participants had to contact researcher voluntarily
within 14 days

10. Recruitment Process
After contacting researcher / expressing interest in study:
• Individual appointments set up to enroll potential
participants
At this meeting, the following explained / obtained:
• Study’s aims
• Researcher’s role / responsibilities concerning ethical
considerations in the process
• Specific focus:
Anonymity, Confidentiality, Informed Consent
• How information gained would be processed

11. Recruitment Process
At this meeting the following explained / obtained:
• Permission sought - use of digital audio recorder
• Participants reminded of their:
- Right to not answer uncomfortable questions, and
- Option to withdraw from study without giving reasons
• Voluntary informed consent
Pilot study: February - July 2008

12. Ethical Considerations
• Ethical approval obtained from UCT Faculty of Health Sciences
Human Research Ethics Committee and the RCC management
• Study conducted according to Declaration of Helsinki principles
(World Medical Association October 2008)
- Anonymity / Confidentiality
- Preventing harm to participants
- Autonomy / beneficence / justice of medical research
• Referral to counsellors if needed
• Participants interviewed at mutually agreed-upon time
at safe venue - they preferred not in natural environment.

13. Data Collection Methods – Pilot / Main Study
• Data collected over 12 months:
August 2008 - August 2009
• Four face-to-face, in-depth interviews conducted
with each participant over six months
• Your partner was raped on [date]
Please tell me how you felt when you first heard about it
[within 14 days]
• Since your partner was raped, how are you dealing with the
experiences related to the incident of your partner’s rape?
[End of first month]

14. Data Collection Methods – Pilot / Main Study
• Since your partner was raped, how you are dealing with the
experiences related to the incident of your partner’s rape?
[After 3/12]
• It is now six months since your partner was raped.
Last time you said… [depending on responses from previous
interview session]
Today, I would like us to talk about how you are feeling now
[End of six months: final reflective interview]
• Throughout study, regular telephonic contact kept with
participants to maintain continued interest

15. Data Analysis
• Data transcribed / analysed within 24 hours after interview
because preliminary findings informed questions for
subsequent sessions
• Methods of Colaizzi (1978) and within-case and across-case
approach (Ayres, Kavanaugh and Knafl, 2003)
• Interpretive theory of Paul Ricœur (1976)
• Data interpretation involved reflecting on initial reading
• With interpretive lens to ensure comprehensive understanding
of findings

16. Trustworthiness
• Prolonged engagement
• Member checking
• Reflective journal:
Reflexivity
Disclosure of personal feelings
Background
Perceptions
Pre-conceptions
Biases
Assumptions
Role in the study

17. Findings
Two major themes:
Being-in-the-world as a secondary victim of rape
and
Living in multiple worlds.
1. Being-in-the-world as a secondary victim of rape
• Participant forced to face reality of partner’s violation
• Propelled into a world never believed possible,
as secondary victim of rape
• Rape of partner immediately turned own life upside down.

18. Findings
“When I returned home from work, I see the door was
halfway closed… I saw the one guy is on top of my pregnant
girlfriend while the other one was busy undressing… I can still
remember my girlfriend looked so helpless while screaming at
them to leave her alone… both the guys appeared drunk…
when I see this, I felt so powerless… I couldn‘t move so
shocked I was… I couldn‘t believe they did this to my
girlfriend; it is so mean.”

19. Findings
Overwhelming frustration and powerlessness:
“I started shouting to get help, but nobody [starts crying]
wanted to help me to look for her… I was feeling so helpless
but start searching myself… when I found her, I could not
believe what she told me; I was so frustrated and shocked;
I couldn‘t believe it when she told me that she was raped
while I was in the shop.”

20. Findings
Humiliation, horror and personal vulnerability:
“I felt very hurt because if you want to hurt a man, the only
way is to sleep with his wife. So sleeping with my wife without
my consent, raping her, it‘s very hard for one to accept in life,
you see; so far, it has changed my life so much because right
now I don‘t have that certainty to see — right now I don‘t
have that manhood, that I am still a man, you see. I don‘t
know how I can explain it, you see. It has changed me so
much.”

21. Findings
A defining moment:
“The rape changed everything that we planned.
We have been going out for seven years, and we have a
nice relationship, and I am looking forward to make her my
wife. So what those guys did, actually they put our
relationship at risk.”

22. Findings
Violation of one’s intimate “property”:
• Talk about “my possession, my intimate property or my pride”
- they had paid ‘lobola’
• “The moment that man raped my wife, he took my pride
which belongs to me… you see, in our culture, we pay lobola
for our wives, so she is mine, and he cannot do that to me.”

23. Findings
Guilt and helplessness:
Participants felt they had neglected their roles as men:
“I feel so guilty and blame myself that she was raped here in
Cape Town… If I did not put that much pressure on her, she
would still be okay… you know; I feel so bad and sorry for her
that I was not there to save her out of his claws.”

24. Findings
2. Being-in-the-world with others:
• Partners:
- Uncertainty about partner’s feelings on sexual intimacy
- Fear of HIV / AIDS
- A desire to continue sexual relations - condoms
“We‘re still using protection… because I know she is my
partner, and she knew the same, we didn‘t use protection
before, and although the blood results were negative, we
rather want to be safe.”

25. Findings
Avoiding sexual intimacy:
“The people talk about the disease, especially HIV and AIDS...
what now if my partner has been infected? You know, it‘s
going to affect me for the rest of my life… it’s something that I
have to think about… so the thought of HIV really affects my
sex life… in fact, I have no sex life on the moment.”

26. Findings
Avoiding communication re sexual intimacy:
“You know, when you don‘t have a sexual appetite,
penetration is always difficult… does she not think that I also
have needs? Her attitude discourages me to ask her for sex…
this is not a good sign for our marriage and future.”
Difficulties discussing feelings:
“We hardy communicate with each other and I really miss
those precious moments of the past when we were being
able to share our thoughts with each other… if we start
talking to each other now it always ends up in a mess…
then we will not talk to each other for days.”

27. Findings
Unsuccessful attempts to re-establish communication;
Abandoned & divided:
“Me and my wife can‘t talk about the rape without arguing
about it… because when I start talking to her about how the
rape affected both our lives and marriage, the one moment,
she start to cry, the other moment, she is so agitated and
accuses me that I don‘t care about how she is feeling and
that I don‘t know what she is going through.”

28. Being-in-the-World With Others
Little or no support:
Employer:
“It is only you and my boss I trust… My boss is now very
supportive after I followed your advice to inform him that
what had happened to me is the reason why I was not myself
for the past weeks.”
Family:
“My family and her family don’t support me at all; they rather
blame me for not looking after my girlfriend which is not good
for me… Every time I think I am getting better, they accuse
me for not looking after their daughter.”

29. Being-in-the-World With Others
Professionals:
• The negative responses reflect lack of counselling for
secondary victims.
• Participants reported being ignored / neglected by police
and health professionals.
“I felt very angry and left out. Everybody at the hospital
cared about her and what had happened to her, but
nobody asked me how I was feeling… Nobody told me
anything, and yet I am her partner who must live with her.”

30. Discussion
• Rape - immediate crisis for both victims
• Participants felt violated too
• The trauma shattered their assumptions about themselves,
their relationships and the world around them, which were
unchallenged prior the crisis
• Rape - a crippling effect on their lives / relationships

31. Phases
1. Trauma awareness (secondary victimisation)
2. Crisis and disorientation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Vulnerability
Violation of one‘s intimate property
Guilt
Anger
Blame
Fear for safety
Unhappiness about injustice
Strong desire to take law into their own hands
Need for rapist to be arrested

32. Phases
3. Outward adjustment
Difficulty coping with:
• Own feelings
• Partner’s responses
• Child care / domestic chores

•
•
•
•
•
•
Attempts to cope with daily routines / circumstances
Emergency problem-solving mechanisms
Comforting partners vs containing own pain
Relief when able to talk about feelings
Displacement of feelings
Substance abuse
Denial

33. Phases
4. Coping difficulties - personal / relationship:
• Re-experiencing disclosure of partners‘ rape
• Reduced concentration / attention span
• Avoiding / withdrawing from situations / activities
that remind them of partners‘ rape
• Sleep disturbances
• Appetite changes
• Lack of energy
• Concerns of poor impulse control
• Self-isolation

34. Phases
5. Re-organising Life on Personal / Relationship
 Search for integration / resolution
•
Accepting / not accepting the rape of their partners
•
Not ready for closure
•
Expressing need for professional support

35. Implications
The findings have implications for:
• Policy makers
• Police / justice system
• Health care professionals
• Nursing education

36. Recommendations
1. Early interventions for intimate partners of female rape
victims required to prevent on-going emotional trauma
that partners endure after rape
2. Supportive interventions could prevent/ reduce effects
of chronic PTSD and silent suffering evident on personal /
relationship / social levels.

37. Acknowledgements
• 19th Qualitative Health Research (QHR) Conference Organisers;
• African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC)
in partnership with the International Development Research
Centre (IDRC);
• Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town,
Republic of South-Africa;
• Department of Health, Western Cape Province,
Republic of South Africa;
• Margaret McNamara Research Foundation;
• Prof. S. Duma & Prof. P. Myers (supervisors / co-authors from UCT,
Republic of South Africa).

38. References
See hand-outs provided

39. Thank you