Gendered lived experiences’ of victims of mob justice rleated incidents

Abstract

Increasing incidents of victims being attacked in mob justice incidents have been documented in th e townships and rural areas of South Africa. Victims of these incidents are often accused of theft, rape, murder, gang or cartel involvement and mostly ‘nyaope’ addicts. The mob attacks often arise spontaneously after the victim is hunted down based on a suspicion or were caught in the act by community members. The victims are often attacked and killed through numerous methods of killings such as necklacing, stoning, beatings and assaults. Such attacks can be directed towards the victim, family members or through damage of property. However, there seems to be limited literature on the experiences of victims of mob justice incidents in South Africa. This is due to the fact that some victims of mob justice do not survive mob justice incidents. Moreover, victims of such incidents and their experiences have been largely ignored or overshadowed by the public’s perception that they are criminals and there fore deserve punishment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the narratives of victims that survived mob justice related incidents in order to understand their experiences. The study employed a qualitative approach using narrative analysis so that victims can narrate on their experiences in mob justice incidents. Furthermore, data was collected using semi structured interviews to gather in-depth information on their experiences as direct victims of mob justice. Data was further interpreted using thematic analysis to organise and analyse themes that emerged from the interviews.