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most affected at 41% and 31% respectively, 63% of spousal assault victims were female and 37% male in the SRDH study, while 58% of spousal assault victims were female in the Argentine study.
A study in Jamaica (Masingh&Ramphel, 1993), revealed an interesting comparison.
There was more female to female violence than female to male, in SRDH, male to male and male to female aggression predominated.
Another study (Odiambo,2008) in Nairobi, Kenya, an African state, that shares interesting socio-economic circumstances with South-African, shows gender distribution of the victims, 87.9% male and 11.6% females with average age of 29.7 years.
The findings by the researcher at SRDH concurs with a study at Witbank
Hospital,(Nkombua,2007) where the typical victim of assault was an African male between the age of 17 and 45 years, and a Johannesburg study,(Butchart& Brown, 1991) where males, most of whom were aged between 20 to 24 years were victims, though younger than the average of 31 years at SRDH.
Comparing findings at SRDH with other studies in Denmark,(Hedeboe et al, 1985), Ililios, Chicago(Fitzpatrick, 1997) and Stockholm, Sweden,( Bostrom, 1997) the common denominator remains: the predominance of young male victims.
Place of assault:
The researcher found out from this study, that the most common place of assault was on the street, (39%), this compares well with the Scottish study (Wright & Kariya, 2007), where the commonest place of assault was on the street (44%) but women were more
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likely to be assaulted in their homes. Another study (Howe &Grill, 2002) in England revealed that, assaults were also most likely to occur on the street.
A difference was noted in a Danish study (Hedeboe, et al, 1985) where assaults most often occurred in or around bars and restaurants.
Time of assault:
The findings in this research where assaults most likely occurred at night (67%), and 91%
of patients treated and discharged from the casualty, compares very well with the other studies; (Janet L et al, 1998) where victims were seen between 6pm and 6am, Spanish study,(Nunez S et al, 2000), assaults mostly occurring at night and patient discharged from the hospital after being treated, Danish study, (Hedeboe et al, 1985), where incidents arose during the evenings and nights. A Swedish study in Stockholm (Bostrom,1997) agrees that assault is mainly a problem of young men, especially late in the evening, 68%
,arriving at the emergency department between 11pm and 4am
attacked during the night, Witbank Hospital, (Nkombua, 2007), where victims were attacked during the night, and Johannesburg study, (Butchart & Brown, 1991) where most incidents occurred between dusk and midnight.
Influence of alcohol:
Influence of alcohol made an interesting finding in the studies and compared well with the researcher’s findings in SRDH; 43% of all cases in Danish study (Hedeboe, 1985), 41% in Swedish study (Bostrom, 1997), 69% in Scotish study(Wright & Kariya, 2007), and 42% in SRDH. While in Agentina (Aalund et al, 1989), 21% of male victims and 5%
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of female victims were under the influence of alcohol, in SRDH, 52% of male and 14%
of females were under the influence of alcohol.
Relationship of perpetrator and victims:
While it is generally acknowledged that intimate partner violence (IPV) is common in South Africa, it is interesting to note that in Kenya ( Saidi, et al,2008), while an intimate partner was the perpetrator in the majority of non-sexual violence at 86.5%, in the SRDH study, only 16% of victims were assaulted by intimate partners, of which 63% were female and 37% were males. While fifty eight percent (58%) spousal assault victims were female in Agentina(Aalund et al, 1989), another study(Janet L F et al), found out that 9%
of all women identified as victim of assault, were most likely to have been injured by their partners or former partners. In Jamaica,(Masingh & Ramphel,1993), family members and acquaintances contributed to about 84% of the violence, while in SRDH, over 88% was contributed by family members and acquaintances.
In comparison with events in the past (SAIRR, 1986), where the level of overt violence can be gauged from the numbers killed between 1985 and 1987, when almost 3000 people died during street political violence; the majority at the hands of the security organs, the researcher found in this study that the majority, of the perpetrators were known to the victims: - neighbours, friends, fathers, children and spouses. The tendency of the assailant to be known to their victim seems to reflect the new face of violence in South-Africa, as reported (Johanna, 2010), Eugene Terreblanche, founder of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, was murdered on his farm outside Ventersdorp by two workers that worked on the farm.
51 Site of Injury:
The researcher found out that injuries involving the head and the neck constituted 64%
of all injuries. This concurs with findings in other studies in Witbank (Nkombua, 2007), Scotland (Wright & Kariya, 2007, Spain (Nunez S et al, 2000), England (Howe & Grilly, 2002), and Sweden ( Bostrom, 1997), where injuries involving the head and /or neck were the commonest. However, a difference was noticed with the study in Nairobi, Kenya (Odhiambo, et al, 2008), where the lower extremities were the commonest sites of
injuries.
The findings that the head, neck and face injuries might be considered as marker of violence, thus staff at Accident and Emergency must consider anyone with such injuries as a potential victim of violence (Brink, 2009), is supported by the observation of this researcher where head and neck injuries constitute 59% of all injuries. This is
particularly important to screening intimate partner violence (IPV), as the researcher noted that 63% of spousal assault victims were female.
Weapons of assault:
The findings in this study where stabbing with bottles (36%) and knives (28%), were commonest weapons of assault compares well with findings in San Francisco (Sumner et al, 1987), where stabbing occurred in 42% of cases and in Jamaica (Masingh& Ramphel, 1993 where knives (34.8%) were used. A contrast was however, observed in the England study (Howe & Grilly, 2002), where fists and feet, (73%), were used. Another UK study, (Fothergill &Hashemi, 1990) and finding in Denmark (Hedeboe et al, 1985), also showed the use of punches and feet predominating as weapons of assaults. While in Sweden
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(Bostrom, 1997), blunt trauma of lower energy type predominated, 44% were hit by fists and 30% by kicks.
It is interesting that firearms were used in Nairobi,Kenya (Odhiambo,et al,2008), 6.3%, San Francisco(Summer et al, ) 12%, and in Chicago( Fitzpatrick, 1997) where firearms were the leading weapons of assaults and cause of death, while firearms did not play any role in this study.
Another interesting finding was in Western Nepal, India,( Subba et al,2010) where it was noted that contusion, (28.7%), was the most common type of injury, followed by incised wounds, (25.7%), with wooden sticks and clubs, (21.5%), followed by kicks and punches as the weapons used. It is the researcher's observation in SRDH that stabbing with a broken bottle, (36%) and the knife, (28%) predominated.
CONCLUSION:
The researcher’s findings concur with the other studies, in which there was congruency in assault victims being predominantly young males, who would have been assaulted by someone known to them, on the street, in the night , most likely under the influence of alcohol, and sustaining most injuries on the head and/or neck.
However, victims in this study and victims in San Francisco and Jamaica are more likely to be stabbed with sharp object like bottles and knives, unlike their European counterparts who would have suffered injuries due to punches and kicks.
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