A South African doctor hopes to help women arm themselves against sexual assault with a new anti-rape condom, but Columbia officials say it is unlikely the device would be used on a college campus.
The condom, called Rape-aXe, is designed to prevent rape with razor-sharp “teeth” inside it that latch onto the penis of an attacker. Sonnet Ehlers, a South African woman who worked with many rape victims as a blood transfusion technician, invented the condom, which gained intense media attention after it was distributed at the World Cup last month.
Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Jill Wieneke said the condom is less likely to be used in the U.S. than in South Africa because there are significantly fewer stranger rapes in the U.S.
“(South Africans) have a high risk and threat of sexual assault that stems from all the political unrest and genocide,” Wieneke said. “The vast majority of our sexual assaults are committed by acquaintances.”
Columbia residents or MU students likely would not use the device because they would not be expecting an assault, she said, but it could give a sense of security to someone who was a previous victim of sexual assault.
Heather Eastman-Mueller, sexual health program coordinator at the Student Health Center, said students would probably not use the condom due to a lack of awareness and understanding of it.
“The female condom, a similar product, has been approved for use in the United States and has been met with a lot of skepticism,” Eastman-Mueller said.
Barbara Hodges, executive director of the Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in Columbia, said she was worried the device could actually be used against a woman in court.
She said some rape cases pit the word of the victim against the suspect because there are often no witnesses. If the device injures a rape suspect, he could claim to be a victim of the incident, she said.
“I could see it being used against the women as, ‘she tricked me,’” Hodges said. “I could see it backfiring.”
The condom, when attached to a man’s penis, is so painful that he would not be able to walk. According to the Rape-aXe website, it would need to be surgically removed, which could lead to the rapist’s capture and prosecution.
Wieneke said a situation where the device catches on a man’s penis is not absolute proof of rape.
“Assuming it works, obviously, we wouldn’t be able to take the fact on its face (that he was a rapist),” she said.
But, if a woman who was wearing the device reports a rape and the attacker seeks treatment at a hospital with it attached, that would be a significant piece of evidence in the rape investigation, she said.
Hodges said the existence of the condom and the knowledge that women could be wearing it could itself act to prevent the crimes.
“I wish (the condom) could be a deterrent just by knowing it exists,” she said. “I can see where it would be a deterrent if it did not backfire.”
But Hodges said the best way to prevent rape is to make a community a safer place and Eastman-Mueller agreed.
“I think a better strategy would be to change societal norms, belief in rape myths and victim blaming,” Eastman-Mueller said. “We must work diligently to reduce a culture that legitimizes violence against individuals, specifically women.”