Education key to curb rape, violence

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Many rapes are by repeat offenders.
And more than two thirds of rapes are by persons known to the victims.
Criminologist Dr. P. Sundramoothy said: "For every reported case, there will be four or five which go unreported.
"This is because almost 80 per cent of rapes are committed by person or persons known to the victim.
Sundramoothy, who is with Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Social Sciences, added: "A large number of rapes are committed by repeat offenders, and their victims are either too scared to report them or too ashamed."
An example of a person charged with several rapes was 23-year-old salesman Ismail Shah Abdul Wahab, who was hauled to the Sessions Court on Aug 30 to face a fifth rape charge.
Last year, he was charged with three counts of rape and granted bail of RM130,000. On Aug 21, while out on bail, he was again charged with rape, sodomy and wrongful confinement. The incidents occurred between Dec 9, 2004 and Aug 3, 2006.
Sundramoothy said: "If they’re caught, these men are thrown into prison and they will serve two-thirds of their sentence. They can be released on good behaviour and return to society to commit the crime again.
"We don’t have an effective rehabilitation programme for sex offenders. The Prisons Department has been conducting studies for the past 10 or 11 years on how to rehabilitate them, but little has come out of it."
He said the department offered religious programmes and counselling sessions, but these were not effective.
"Rape is not just about sexual gratification, it is also about power, control and aggression. Men are biologically more aggressive than women. They just have to know how to keep their aggression under control.
"What we have here is a failure to educate the society. Right now, we have young men arrested for statutory rape. They don’t even know what statutory rape is. They say ‘Oh, it was consensual, it’s not rape’ because they don’t realise that having sex with women under the age of 16 constitutes rape, even if it’s consensual."
Education was the key to curbing rape and violence against women, said Ivy Josiah, executive director of the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO).
"The most powerful mode of preventing rape is educating young men. They need to be taught to respect women.
"Women must learn to respect themselves and learn ways to avoid being exposed to circumstances where they can be taken advantage of."
She agreed that sometimes the legal sanctions imposed were ineffective in dealing with sex offenders.
"The process of convicting these perpetrators takes too much time. For others, they may think that they can get away with it, but I notice that judges are handing out heavier penalties for sexual offences and are stricter on them.
"Sex education needs to be taught early. A five-year-old child should know what constitutes a ‘bad touch’. The fact is over 90 per cent of rape is committed by people the victims know. Only a small percentage of rape is committed by strangers."
She said women should realise that they were more exposed to sexual assault closer to home than anywhere else.