87% of people murdered in South Africa are men: Study

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A study by the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) has revealed that 87% of people murdered in South Africa are men. The study is aimed at challenging the idea that men are invulnerable.

Professor Richard Matzopoulos, researcher at the Burden of Disease Unit at the council, says this is the first study on male murders in South Africa, as previous studies focused mainly on femicide.

“There are gender norms around violence, and why perpetrators for example will exert different types of violence against men, and against women. So, it’s no surprise that women in South Africa are subjected to enormous amounts of abuse and sexual abuse, primarily affecting women rather than men. But the levels of physical violence against men, that’s also a gender dynamic that we need to unpack and understand.”

Matzopoulos says this is not exclusive to adult males.

“It’s not just adults, we even see that amongst young children from the ages of zero – to 4 years old. We see that boys, 80% are more likely to be murdered than girls.”