4.3.5 The woes of economic hardships, poverty and urbanisation Although these were raised under harmful cultural practices, certain living conditions that have been precipitated by poverty, urbanization, and housing shortages among other factors were also raised as creating conditions that expose women and girls to rape. For instance, respondents raised the lodging of families in one room as a factor contributing to the rape of women and girls by close relatives. The respondents also gave examples of situations and practices brought on by harsh economic conditions and other social vices such as child trafficking, forced brides in exchanged for money, family disintegration and prostitution as exposing women and girls to rape. 4.3.6 Societal attitudes Some societal attitudes also made their way into the “harmful cultural practices discourse.” These attitudes excuse bad behaviour by men, trivialise rape, and the criminality of the act of rape. For instance, the excuse given on behalf of men that they find women irresistible and provocative no matter what they are wearing was singled out as a factor that makes women susceptible to rape. The myth that women in relationships, whether married or not, should not refuse their men sex and the argument that women become more secure in their relationship if they agree to have as much sex as the man wants could lead to the rape of women. This is because society raises an expectation amongst men to demand for sex and expect to get it from the woman, either willingly or under duress The respondents also pointed out that watching pornographic material with men makes women susceptible to rape. These factors sound apologetic for men, painting them as vulnerable creatures with no self-control while women are the provocateurs. Indeed because society accepts them as facts, when a woman is raped under those circumstances then she doubly becomes the victim, raped by the man and blamed by society for bringing the rape upon herself. 4.3.7 Budding practices Throughout the study, the respondents also revealed that there are budding practices that are slowly becoming part of culture. However, it is difficult to establish a direct causal link between most of these practices and women’s susceptibility to rape. These practices include circumcision and sex education in schools. From the examples given under this section, it appears as if religious and traditional beliefs as well as societal attitudes that are apologetic about the criminality of rape, and which try to justify the rapists’ actions and blame the victim, increase the likelihood of women getting raped. The silent culture that silences victims and protects perpetrators, the stigmatisation, the corruption in the justice system that causes rapists to be released without trial as long as they pay, police indifference to rape victims, and society’s tolerance of men’s rowdy behaviour do not make it any easier for the crime of rape to be fully punished as the grave crime that it is. 5. CONCLUSIONS The study revealed interesting findings about how people view rape including that:   Most people had a good understanding of what rape is and they based it on cultural implications; Most of the respondents blamed culture for rape and a relatively higher number of persons thought that it was always the perpetrator’s fault if rape occurred;