Abstract: Submission #121

Abstract Rape remains one of the heinous crimes committed in South Africa, and in majority of cases, women and children are the victims and survivors. The purpose of this paper is to advance an argument from a social work perspective for the consideration, introduction and implementation of a mandatory recourse program for the victims and survivors of rape in South Africa. This purpose is informed by the fact that courts only incarcerate the offenders of rape while there is no mandatory recourse offered to the victims and survivors of rape, except in the cases of whereby they institute litigations against the perpetrators, which is time consuming as well as has financial implications. This desktop paper is divided into five sections. The first section is on problem statement, while the second section focuses on the theoretical framework. The third section discusses reasons for the consideration, introduction and implementation of a mandatory recourse program for the victims and survivors of rape in South Africa. The fourth section answers the question on who should benefit from the proposed mandatory recourse program and the last section focuses on the role of social work in the mandatory recourse program for victims and survivors of rape.