Cross-cultural variations in sexual crimes: Public health perspective

Abstract

Sex crimes are reported and welldocumented in nearly all parts of the world.Sexual violence is a significant social issueand a severe human rights violation(Ackerman & Furman, 2015). Sexual violencesignificantly increases the disease burden byincreasing the risk of sexual and reproductiveproblems and affects physical and mentalhealth (Borumandnia et al., 2020). Manyvariables influence the judging of sexualaggression. Amongst these factors, culture isa relevant variable as it applies to gendernorms, traditional values, and beliefs. One ofthese beliefs is the “culture of honour”,which is likely to encourage or support amale’s aggression towards a victim, especiallyin cases of sexual assault within intimaterelationships. This response is elicited as thevictim’s pre-assault behavior is considered aninsult to the perpetrator’s reputation orhonor (Gul & Schuster, 2020). World HealthOrganization (WHO) has documented theviolence against women and girls as aconsequence of gender inequality in society.Globally, these affect women (physical injury,disability, mental health issues, sexual andreproductive problems), families (loss ofsense of security among children of victimsand potential child abuse, loss of home, lossof income), and community as a whole withthe high cost of providing services, loss ofwomen and gender minorities participatingin public life and loss of productivity (WHO,2016). Given the complexities of humansocieties, knowledge of gender-based beliefsand cultural stereotypes beyond a specificcountry is crucial. The urban wave ofmigration and multicultural societies calls forthe need for cross-cultural comparison ofgender norms and cultural practices whichinfluence sexual violence as well as publichealth worldwide (Fakunmoju & Bammeke,2017).