What is striking about homicides in South Africa is the significant difference between males ..... Those people are your idols and you, yourself, you want to inspire ...
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Homicide in South Africa
Offender Perspectives on Dispute‐related Killings of Men
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Introduction
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Homicide is a serious health problem in South Africa. Violence caused by crime, including homicide, is the second leading cause of death in the general population (following HIV/AIDS), irrespective of gender and age (Norman et al. 2007a), and the first leading cause of death among males (Donson 2008). The average number of deaths caused by violence in South Africa is almost twice as high as the global average. A prevailing characteristic of homicides in South Africa is the disproportionate role of young men as perpetrators and victims. Young men in the age group of 15 to 29 have the highest homicide victimization rates in the country (184 per 100,000), and this age group is also significantly overrepresented in the statistics on homicide suspects (CSVR 2008a). In urban disadvantaged areas (referred to as township areas), the victimization rate among young men is more than twice the average for young men in other areas. South African women are six times more likely to die from a homicide than the world average and more than half of these homicides are committed by an intimate partner (Seedat et al. 2009). What is striking about homicides in South Africa is the significant difference between males and females in both offending and victimization patterns. Men tend to get killed in public; women at home. Men most often get killed by strangers; women by their intimate partner. Men tend to get killed in the context of arguments; women in the context of rapes (CSVR 2008a). Homicide offending is significantly more common among men than women. This difference has been explained as the consequence of patriarchal notions of masculinity believed to influence men to use violence as a quest for dominance and control over women (Mathews, Jewkes, The Handbook of Homicide, First Edition. Edited by Fiona Brookman, Edward R. Maguire, and Mike Maguire. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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and Abrahams 2011). For example, Mathews, Jewkes, and Abrahams (2015) found that South African men killed their intimate partner because it made them feel like a man. But if the main motivation for killings of women is to feel like a man, why do South African men then kill other men? Do killings of other men also make them feel like a man? And if so, what kind of man do they become by killing other men? Even though a relatively large number of South African men engage in violent crime including lethal violence compared to the global average, such crime is still a minority. Yet few studies have provided insights into the sources of variation among men who do commit these crimes compared to those who do not (Gibson and Lindegaard 2007; Graham 2014; Morrell et al. 2013). What is known is that there are a number of factors associated with the high rate of violent crimes in South Africa (Seedat et al. 2009), including the violent history of the country (Abrahams and Jewkes 2005; Kaminer et al. 2008), the racial and economic segregation (Lemanski 2004), the high level of poverty and inequality (Demombynes and Özler 2005; Wood 2006), the history of divided families (Mathews, Jewkes, and Abrahams 2011), and the inefficiency of state responses to crime (Steinberg 2012). How these factors play out specifically in relation to homicides and why these factors supposedly influence men differently than women are unclear. In this chapter, I propose street culture as a framework for understanding the sources of variation among South African men, including differences among men living in the “advanced marginality” (Wacquant 2008) of the townships, character ized by poverty and racial and economic segregation. Similar to some disadvantaged urban areas of the US and Europe, some young men living in township areas engage in violent behavior as a means for social status in the alternative hierarchy of street‐ oriented people (Baumer et al. 2003; Brookman et al. 2011; Holligan 2015; Sandberg and Pedersen 2011; Stewart and Simons 2010; Wright, Brookman, and Bennett 2006; Wright and Decker 1997). Violent behavior provides street capital (Sandberg and Pedersen 2011), and homicide as the most extreme manifestation of violence provides the most street capital. After a review of some of the key patterns and characteristics of homicides in South Africa, this chapter focuses on the most common type of homicide: dispute‐related homicides, committed in public by men against men. Based on the perspectives of 14 offenders who committed such a homi cide, I propose understanding these killings in the context of street culture.
Patterns of Homicide in South Africa
Compared to Europe, Canada, and the United States, as described in this volume (Chapter 17, Chapter 21), homicides in South Africa are significant for the following reasons: there is a relatively high rate of dispute‐related homicides; a significant overrepresentation of males both as victims and offenders; a relatively high risk of women getting killed by an intimate partner; a tendency for other types of crime ending in lethal violence; the relatively common killings of victims previously unknown to the offender; and the more recent type of vigilantism‐related homicides, currently accounting for 7 percent of all homicides in the country.
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Frequency
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Despite criticism of the South African Police Services (SAPS) for not providing reliable crime statistics, SAPS provides the most comprehensive information about homicides. In 2013–2014, SAPS recorded 17,068 homicides countrywide at a rate of 32.2 per 100,000 (SAPS 2015). The homicide rate has declined by 20 percent since 2004, which translates to a reduction of 40.3 to 32.2 per 100,000 of the population between 2004 and 2014. Despite this reduction, the rate is still approximately five times the world average (Norman et al. 2007b). Female homicides followed the general declining trend of homicides, while intimate partner femicide and suspected rape homicide (sexual component found during investigation) rates did not follow this decrease but remained steady in the period 1999–2009 (Abrahams et al. 2013). None of these trends of homicides have been thoroughly explained but it has been suggested that recent gun control legislation (Firearms Control Acts) with provisions for safer firearm use and ownership, and improved policing and detective work, might cause this downward trend (Abrahams et al. 2013).
Motivations
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More than half of all murders were related to interpersonal arguments and disputes; one quarter were committed in the course of another crime such as robbery, burglary, or rape; and 7 percent were related to vigilantism and revenge (CSVR 2008a). Although many arguments between men and women result in various forms of violent assaults, 90 percent of the arguments that end with fatal violence are between men (CSVR 2010). One study of motivations for killings of women based on offender perspectives showed that these homicides were motivated by a quest for dominance and extreme control over women (Mathews, Jewkes, and Abrahams 2015). No similar study was conducted about men who killed men. Studies of violent crime in general based on offender perspectives suggested that violence provided status within a gang, proved being a real man, and generated income (CSVR 2008b). Violent crimes were also described as a means for social mobility, belonging, and respect (Lindegaard and Jacques 2014).
Conditions
Forty percent of homicides were committed with a sharp object (stabbings), 36 percent with a firearm, and 22 percent with blunt force (CSVR 2010). A study conducted by the CSVR about the six areas in South Africa where most homicides take place showed that most homicides in these areas occur on a Saturday; December is the month with the highest number of homicides (i.e., holiday season); and 46 percent occur in public places while 26 percent occur in the home of the victim (CSVR 2008a). Compared to Europe and Canada (see Chapter 17 and Chapter 20, this volume),
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homicides occur relatively often in public places in South Africa. Remarkably, 46 percent of all dispute‐related homicides occur in public and semi‐public places, such as in streets and bars (CSVR 2008a: 54). This may be a consequence of people spending more time in the street and bars generally due to overcrowded houses and generally deprived living conditions. It may also be a consequence of street culture related ideas about not losing face and acting out violence when being challenged in public (Anderson 1999).
Victim–offender relationships
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In more than half the cases of reported homicides in South Africa, the relationship between the victim and offender is unclear. In 28 percent of the cases, the victim did not know the offender. In 19 percent of the cases, the offender was an intimate partner or more or less closely related to the victim (CSVR 2008a: 28). These characteristics suggest that, compared to other places in the world for example Europe and Canada (Chapter 17 and Chapter 20, this volume), a relatively high rate of homicides occur between people who know each other either vaguely or not at all. Killings that result from disputes, are driven by revenge, or are motivated by rivals between groups such as gangs, are most likely to occur between people who know each other only vaguely or not at all (CSVR 2008a: 49).
Age
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People in their twenties and thirties are at highest risk of becoming a victim of homicide: 41 percent of homicide victims are aged between 20 and 29 years and 29 percent are aged between 30 and 39 years (CSVR 2008a). Forty‐eight percent of homicide suspects are aged between 20 and 29 years; 32 percent are older than 30 years; and 20 percent are younger than 20 years. The well‐known victim–offender overlap primarily exists among 20 to 29 year age group; older people are more likely to become victims than offenders, whereas younger people are more at risk of offending than victimization (CSVR 2008a). Compared to Europe (see Chapter 17, this volume), victims and offenders of homicide are relatively young in South Africa.
Race categories
During apartheid, South Africans were categorized as White, African/Black, Colored, or Indian/Asian. Colored was a category constructed to include people who did not fit any of the other categories (Posel 2001). Despite the official elimina tion of the terminology, these distinctions still matter in everyday life and therefore tend to be reproduced in scientific investigations as well. Although most victims of homicides are reported among Blacks the countrywide rate reported among
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Coloreds is relatively higher (Leggett 2004; Thomson 2004). Even though some varia tion exists between measures of the representation of people categorized as Colored in these statistics (Altbeker 2008), there seems to be consensus that 16 percent of homicide victims are Colored (Donson 2008) while only 9 percent of the population is classified as such (CSVR 2008a). The CSVR homicide study showed that in specifically high‐risk areas, the distri bution of race categories among victims largely follows the population distribution in those areas: 89 percent were African (85% of the population); 10 percent Colored (9% of the population); 1 percent Asian (5% of the population); and less than 1 percent were White (1% population; CSVR 2008a). Apparently the race category of victims in high‐risk areas is not what determines their risk of homicide victimization. The distribution of race categories of suspects similarly follows the general distribution of the population, with Coloreds being an exception. Due to their relatively high representation in dispute‐related homicides, the overall repre sentation of the category Colored among homicide suspects is 12 percent while only representing 9 percent of the population (CSVR 2008a). The overrepresentation of Coloreds as victims and offenders has caused extensive discussions about what it is about being Colored that makes this group extraordinarily vulnerable. Coloreds represent the largest population group in Cape Town but nationwide they are rather marginal. During apartheid, the category Colored was used to classify everyone that did not fit the categories of African/Black, White, and Indian/Asian. Their rights were better than Africans/ Blacks but worse than those for Whites and Indians/Asians. Their jobs and residential areas were constructed as buffer zones between Whites and Africans/ Blacks (Posel 2001). Their “in‐between” type of identity has been described as causing doubt, and consequently a search for recognition through various means including criminal behavior. The relatively high figures of organized crime in Colored communities have been described as a consequence of the apartheid government that supported gangs as a means of controlling the population in non‐ White areas (Jensen 2008; Standing 2003). In return for acting as political infor mants by providing information about opponents of the apartheid government, gangs were supported financially and protected by the police (Kynoch 1999). However, it is remarkable that Coloreds are not represented particularly highly in statistics of gang‐related homicides. Their relative overrepresentation is mainly related to arguments that end in lethal violence. An alternative explanation may be the dominance of street culture repertoires among young men living in Colored communities, a topic to which I return shortly.
Gender Males are highly overrepresented in the homicide statistics both as victims and offenders. Ninety‐four percent of homicide suspects are male, and almost half of these suspects are between 20 and 29 years old (CSVR 2008a: 97). The highest victimization
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rate of homicide is among young men aged 15–29 years (184 per 100,000). In some urban disadvantaged areas this rate is more than twice this number (Groenewald et al. 2008). Death of men from homicide outnumbers death of women by seven to one. Of the murders that happen under known circumstances, the largest category of male victims by far is that of homicides that develop out of arguments; the second largest is that of homicides committed in the aftermath of other crimes, such as robberies and burglaries (CSVR 2008a: 45). Twelve percent of all homicide victims in South Africa are female. The 1999 rate among South African women was six times higher (24.7 per 100,000; Seedat et al. 2009: 1012) than the worldwide average of homicide among women (4.0 per 100,000). The high risk of homicide among women is related to the extraordinarily high incidences of intimate partner femicide and rape‐related femicide (Mathews, Jewkes, and Abrahams 2015). More than half of the female victims of homicide were killed by an intimate partner (Seedat et al. 2009). Significant differences exist between killings of men and women. For example, men tend to be killed in public and are most often killed after an argument with an offender who they previously barely knew. Women tend to get killed at home, in the context of a rape, and the offender is usually an intimate partner to the victim (CSVR 2008a). The risk of homicide among women has been explained as being the consequence of masculine ideals of extreme control of and dominance over women (Mathews, Jewkes, and Abrahams 2015). A large variety of studies have suggested that South African men perceive it as necessary to claim a position as dominant toward women (Jewkes et al. 2011; Morrell 2001; Wood and Jewkes 2001). According to these studies, South African men are likely to act violently because of their inability to control women through other means. They suffer from social and economic mar ginalized positions, which make them incapable of being good providers (Campbell 1992). At the same time they are highly competitive about power, status, and honor (Ratele 2008; Wood, Lambert, and Jewkes 2007). This combination of lacking the means to establish dominance and an unwillingness to accept a non‐dominant posi tion has been described as causing a variety of violent crimes including killings of women.
Inequality and poverty
In a study of 63 countries, South Africa had the highest levels of inequality and homicide rates (Wood 2006). Unemployment, particularly among young men, was found to be the second most consistent correlate of homicide and major assaults after income inequality (Wilkinson, Kawachi, and Kennedy 1998). Half of the homi cide victims in South Africa were unemployed; 17 percent were blue‐collar workers; 9 percent were students; and 5 percent were employed by the police or private security. Almost 70 percent of the victims were unmarried at the time of their death (CSVR 2008a).
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It is known that homicides in South Africa are strongly related to advanced urban marginality (Lemanski 2004). Even though two of the top six neighborhoods with the highest frequency of homicides in South Africa are former White areas, homicides in South Africa most frequently occur in former Black and Colored areas (also referred to as townships), characterized by entrenched racial segregation and economic marginalization (CSVR 2008a). In a study in Johannesburg, neighbor hood‐concentrated disadvantage was significantly related to higher levels of male and female adolescent homicide (Swart, Seedat, and Nel 2015). It is known that people living in township areas are significantly more at risk to homicides than people living in other urban areas. From other parts of the world, a significant positive correlation between homicide rates and income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has been documented (Daly, Wilson, and Vasdev 2001). In the South African context, the correlation between inequality and homicide was con firmed in a study comparing different districts: a one percent increase in inequality of a district is associated with an increase in the homicide rate from 2.3 to 2.5 percent (Harris and Vermaak 2014). The relative deprivation of people living in township areas of Cape Town has been described as a generator for violent crimes. The difficulties of being confronted with the wealth of people living in the more wealthy suburbs, while having to deal with poverty and a lack of future perspectives, was described by participants in my study as one of the reasons they engaged in crime. In the context of advanced marginality, agency can be a cause of crime because crime provides social mobility and is used for income‐generating purposes (Lindegaard and Jacques 2014). In summary, homicides in South Africa relatively often occur in public, among strangers, and in the context of arguments or other crimes. Homicide of women is exceptional by being committed by intimate partners at home. Even though most homicides are committed by men against men, little is known about the motivations for these killings. In the case study that follows I will focus on illustrating the complexities and nuances regarding these killings based on offender perspectives. My analysis indicates the importance of understanding the cultural repertoires, including street culture repertoires that these offenders draw upon to make sense of their violent acts.
A Case Study: Offender Perspectives on Dispute‐related Killings of Men
This study is based on a broader ethnographic investigation of offending and victimization patterns among young men in Cape Town in the period of 2005–2009 (Lindegaard 2009). Of a total of 48 participants, this specific case study focuses on 14 men who had committed a male‐on‐male homicide in the context of a dispute in public.1 I will illustrate how the participants described their experiences with killing as related to a certain type of lifestyle similar to what has been described as street culture in other parts of the world.
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Street‐oriented people are characterized by searching for status through the means of crime, and in particular through their willingness and capability to use violence (Anderson 1999; Garot 2010). Among young people involved in street culture in the United States, excessive forms of violence such as homicides were found to provide more street capital than less excessive forms such as assaults and robberies (Wilkinson 2001). Copes and Hochstetler (2003: 286) summarized that street‐oriented people use crime to prove themselves as: (1) autonomous; (2) capable of providing for themselves; and (3) action oriented. These three aspects were prominent in the descriptions of the 14 homicide offenders in this case study. Furthermore, I illustrate how the participants described killing as providing them with a feeling of dominance and control (4), as found in other contexts among homi cide offenders (Brookman 2000) and in particular among heavily street‐oriented young people (Wilkinson 2001).
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(1) Autonomous
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Participants described killing as related to a particular type of lifestyle that involved “doing crime” and being willing to go “all the way” when being challenged in public. This lifestyle of crime involvement made them autonomous in two different ways: by being independent of expectations of conventional society and of expectations of gang‐ involved people inside and outside prison. To illustrate, Drégan killed a man with an axe in a bar after the victim provoked him by asking for a kiss. He contrasted his interest in shootings and murders with the interest of the author in the following ways:
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With your [the author’s] friends you can talk about studies that you conducted or what is on the news or your friend’s baby or stuff like that. But what do we [Drégan and his friends] talk about? We talk about gang members. We talk about guns, we talk about people stabbing. We’re interested in that. Those things fascinate us to hear about. You’re bombarded with all of that. Those people are your idols and you, yourself, you want to inspire, to incorporate some of their characteristics into your like [character] and you also want to assume that role one day.
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According to Drégan, conventionally oriented people represented by the author gain status through conventional means such as education and parental responsibilities. People in his less conventional world earn street capital by talking about crime. Crime is a way to gain social status and talking about it is a way to prove your adherence to street culture, including an alternative hierarchy that provides alternative forms of social status. Crimes committed in the context of gangs were by some participants described as making you dependent on others, which was exactly what they wanted to avoid by adhering to a criminal lifestyle. Drégan described how gang involvement was often seen as providing security but in his perception it only offered you a boss telling you what to do without the benefits of ordinary employment:
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For me, gangsterism is stupid. I mean, I don’t get paid. I don’t get their wages. I don’t get medical insurance. I don’t get nothing. I have to rob people …. That was just the way that I like … figured it out. I felt like independent. Like me against the world. It made me feel stronger; stronger to be … For me the chance was, to play in the game or out there without being connected to a team. On your own.
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According to the participants, operating on your own in the underground world of criminal activities required being extra tough and willing to use lethal violence when being provoked in public.
(2) Capable of providing for yourself
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The participants described their homicides as a consequence of being involved in a criminal lifestyle that ensured money for their own needs and those of their families (Lindegaard and Jacques 2014). Through crimes they were able to support an excessive lifestyle that would be impossible through ordinary paid work. Kenneth had killed several people, both as calculated revenge and as immediate manifestation when being challenged in public. He described his lifestyle in the following way:
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That’s how I support my family, you see? My girlfriend, have a son … I support him also. That’s why I rob. I realized if I go to work, I’m gonna get paid maybe three hundred rand a week [30 Euro]. That’s not enough for me. The things I want. I’m not gonna afford, that’s why I do this thing.
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Kyle was not involved in a gang but often spent time with gangsters. He killed a guy in a bar after the victim challenged him in front of a girl he wanted to impress. He explained that involvement in crime was a way to obtain money for alcohol, drugs, and clothes:
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My friends, they used to steal when they came to school, they have money, they smoke, they drink, use drugs and so. I was interested in those things, you see? I also wanted money, I wanted to wear what they wear, but my mother couldn’t afford to buy me clothes.
(3) Action oriented
When talking about their homicides, the participants used the expression “talking type” or “acting type.” Their willingness to use violence when necessary made them the acting type, whereas people who were afraid of violence, and therefore not street‐capable, tended to talk themselves out of trouble: I don’t like to talk. I’m not a talking person … You see if this guy’s taking me for this [a talking type], I must show him. I don’t mind where I am. I just do my thing [use violence]. (Kenneth)
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Devron had killed two people who challenged him in public. He explained the importance of showing others your “true colors” through the use of violence:
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I just wanted to show them how I’m really snapping. So actually it’s showing them your true colors. How you do stuff. My friends, they’re going to say “my broer” [my brother]. It’s not about knowing. You know, we’re not kittens. Get that kitten side away. Find the hardest “broer” [brother].
Damian had killed at least ten people when operating as a hit man for a gang. He was small of posture and repeatedly explained that his talent for shooting and his willingness to use excessive violence whenever being challenged made him a “big boy” in the eyes of his peers: It’s to show them [peers] you’re a man. To do things they can do. It doesn’t matter if you’re small or what. But if you shoot like that they say: “You’re a big boy.”
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(4) Homicide as expression of dominance and control
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Participants described the homicide as a necessary way of claiming dominance after they had been challenged in public. Responding in excessively violent ways provided them with a feeling of superiority. Kyle described his ability to stand up for himself and kill his opponent as: “It is like you are the great one. You have succeeded in what you wanted to do.” Drégan said that a provocation turned him into battle mood: “You only focus on one thing. Destroying your victim. You know you just have to do that.” Even though the lethal violence used by the participants was described as being the outcome of being in affective state of anger, they described the moment of killing as being a challenge in terms of staying focused and being able to actually go as far as to kill someone. Their immediate emotion of fear was an overwhelming part of this experience and needed to be blocked out by staying focused and alert (Lindegaard 2010). This complexity of the moment of homicide decision‐making contributes to existing knowledge about the restraining effect of fear and the facili tating effect of anger on the decision to kill (Brookman 2015). The importance of claiming dominance was described by the participants as making them capable of blocking out their fear and staying focused in the moment of the killing: I didn’t think before. I just started stabbing him. I must show them when they kick me. I must show them now. I must show them that they must leave me now. I must make an example. I must stay focused. You must fight now because you’re afraid that they’ll kill you so you must fight now. (Byron)
Being able to respond with lethal violence was an ultimate form of dominance but the way an individual killed someone also mattered for the type of status he gained from committing a murder:
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You see, when you’re scared. You express your fear. You can’t shoot. But someone who can shoot, you [will] hear [about it]. When he shoots and he didn’t waste his bullets. (Kenneth)
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The participants in this case study described committing a homicide as a means for dominance and control over their male victim after being challenged in public. They explained their killings as related to a lifestyle that included proving them selves as autonomous, capable of providing for themselves (and their families), and of being action oriented. In other parts of the world this lifestyle was described as related to street culture (Anderson 1999; Brookman et al. 2007; Sandberg and Pedersen 2011).
Conclusions: Street Masculinities as a Framework for Understanding Male Homicides
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Homicides in South Africa are a serious health risk. Patterns of homicides are highly gendered. Men tend to get killed in public. Male homicides most often get committed in the context of arguments and revenge related disputes, and they tend to get carried out by strangers who are previously barely known to the victim. Women are most likely to get killed at home. Female homicides tend to be committed in the context of a rape and are often carried out by an intimate partner to the victim (CSVR 2008a). Even though men are significantly more at risk of becoming homicide victims, the majority of literature on homicides in South Africa focuses on explaining homicide against women (Abrahams, Jewkes, and Mathews 2010, 2013; Jewkes and Abrahams 2002; Mathews, Jewkes, and Abrahams 2011). These studies have provided strong evidence that men who kill their intimate partners are motivated by a quest for dominance and control over women. Based on a case study of 14 male homicide offenders who killed a relatively unknown male in the context of a dispute in public, I illustrated how their motivations for homicide are similar to the motiva tions described by men who killed their intimate partners. The participants described their killing as being driven by a quest for dominance and control over a male victim who challenged them in public. Whereas studies of female homicides explained this motivation as a consequence of patriarchal notions of masculinity, I suggest specifying the potential sources of variation among men with a focus on the types of cultural repertoires men use to make sense of their violence. My analysis indicated that the homicides of these offenders formed part of a certain street‐oriented lifestyle that implied: (1) being autonomous from conventional society and from gang involvement; (2) proving the ability to provide for themselves and their families; and (3) being action oriented (rather than the “talking‐type‐of‐ person”). Through killing of a challenging male victim in public the participants gained street capital, and this capital provided status among peers involved in street culture (Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald 2013).
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Rather than perceiving homicides committed by men as being inherently related to dominant notions of masculinity, I propose that the quest for dominance over and control of the victim must be understood as associated with a particular type of men engaging in street culture. Men who claim street masculinities are characterized by lacking conventional means for social status such as paid jobs and educational diplomas, and by being concerned about improving their life in a short‐term capacity (Lindegaard and Jacques 2014). Future studies need to pay closer attention to the variation of cultural repertoires, including different types of street culture repertoires, which men draw upon to make sense of their violence. More insights are needed about the way street culture makes young men vulnerable to homicide offending and to violent crime victimiza tion more generally. Studies that provide sequential insights into the courses of actions during homicides, comparing male and female offenders, and male offenders drawing on different types of cultural repertoires, will bring the field of homicide studies further. In South Africa, more insights are needed about the radical vulner ability to homicide offending and victimization among men.
Note
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1 The participants were between 17 and 25 years old at the time of the study. They all grew up in township areas of Cape Town. Four described themselves as Black and ten as Colored. Two participants finished high school and continued with further studies. Five lived in a household including both their father and mother before incarceration. Ten lived with only their mother, one with only his grandmother, and one was homeless. Five were involved in well‐organized gangs. One shifted between different gang affiliations without any official commitment. Five committed various forms of crimes with a group of friends without any official name or hierarchical structure. Three committed crimes together with friends who were organized in a gang.
References
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Abrahams, N. and Jewkes, R. (2005) Effects of South African men’s having witnessed abuse of their mothers during childhood on their levels of violence in adulthood. American Journal of Public Health, 95: 1811–1116. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2003.035006. Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., and Mathews, S. (2010) Guns and gender‐based violence in South Africa. South African Medical Journal, 100(9): 586–588. Abrahams, N., Mathews, S., Martin, L.J., et al. (2013) Intimate partner femicide in South Africa in 1999 and 2009. PLOS Medicine, 10: e1001412. doi: 10.1371/journal. pmed.1001412. Altbeker, A. (2008) Murder and robbery in South Africa: A tale of two trends. In A. van Niekerk, S. Suffla, and M. Seedat (eds), Crime, Violence and Injury Prevention in South Africa: Data to Action (pp. 122–149). Tygerberg, South Africa: MRC‐UNISA Crime, Violence and Injury Lead Programme.
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Serran, G. and Firestone, P. (2004) Intimate partner homicide: A review of the male proprietari ness and the self‐defense theories. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 9: 1–15. doi: 10.1016/ S1359‐1789(02)00107‐6. Walker, L. (2005) Men behaving differently: South African men since 1994. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 7: 225–238. doi: 10.1080/13691050410001713215.
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