Shanaaz Mathews

Shanaaz Mathews
University of Cape Town | UCT · Children's Institute

PhD

About

82
Publications
56,034
Reads
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2,290
Citations
Additional affiliations
October 2012 - present
University of Cape Town
Position
  • Managing Director
January 2002 - September 2012
South African Medical Research Council
Position
  • Specialist Scientist
Education
July 2005 - December 2008
University of the Witwatersrand
Field of study
  • Public Health
January 2002 - December 2003
University of Cape Town
Field of study
  • Public Health

Publications

Publications (82)
Article
Full-text available
South Africa has extraordinarily high levels of CSA with profound immediate and long‐term mental health outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the mental health adjustment of children who experienced CSA and accessed support services using mixed methods. Structured interviews using validated mental health screening tools were conducted with chil...
Article
Sexual femicide, an abhorrent crime, is not well described and reported. The aim of the study was to describe sexual and non-sexual femicide in South Africa and compare the 2009 with the 2017 study presenting sociodemographic characteristics of victims, perpetrators, crime and forensic findings. The same retrospective study design using proportiona...
Article
Full-text available
Background In most countries, reliable national statistics on femicide, intimate partner femicide (IPF), and non-intimate partner femicide (NIPF) are not available. Surveys are required to collect robust data on this most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence (IPV). We analysed 3 national surveys to compare femicide, IPF, and NIPF from 1...
Article
Full-text available
Background Group care (GC) improves the quality of maternity care, stimulates women’s participation in their own care and facilitates growth of women’s social support networks. There is an urgent need to identify and disseminate the best mechanisms for implementing GC in ways that are feasible, context appropriate and sustainable. This protocol pre...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Group Care (GC) improves the quality of maternity care, stimulates women’s participation and facilitates growth of women’s social support network. There is an urgent need to identify and disseminate the best mechanisms for implementing GC in ways that are feasible, context appropriate and sustainable. This protocol presents the aims and...
Chapter
Full-text available
This case study describes the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on child health in the Western Cape and the subsequent response. It draws on multiple data sources: routine data, case examples, experiential evidence from practitioners and a series of advocacy briefs that examine the impact of COVID-19 on children in the Western Cape. About 12 000 chil...
Article
Full-text available
In the initial phases of the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa, children experienced relative neglect, as they were deemed to be at low risk for contracting and spreading COVID-19 infection. Overwhelmed by adult infections, the health system responded slowly to children’s complex needs brought about by the epidemic. This in-depth case study outline...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Whilst growing evidence on VAW and VAC exist, these forms of violence have rarely been studied in parallel. There is therefore a paucity of literature on understanding the intersections of male perpetrated violence against women and caregiver (male and female) perpetrated violence against children, particularly in South Africa and other low and...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Globally, violence against children (VAC) is estimated to affect up to 1 billion children between the ages of two to 17 years, with significant health, social and psychological consequences, and significant social costs. Although VAC is a global problem, it is not experienced equally across regions and countries. Estimates show that violence in t...
Article
Full-text available
At-risk families and caregivers from low-and middle-income countries have been shown to benefit from parenting interventions. But there is limited evidence on the impact of interventions on adolescent parents. This paper considers the effects of a parenting programme targeting adolescent parents in South Africa, emphasising parenting and adolescent...
Article
Purpose This paper aims to describe the challenges and potential benefits of moving a mentoring programme for young people in care and care leavers to an online mode of delivery in response to the South African Government’s efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive account incor...
Book
Full-text available
This project aimed to explore the potential of formal youth mentoring as an effective, scalable approach to interrupting intergenerational transmission of disadvantage by enabling social and economic inclusion for young people leaving alternative care in South Africa. We sought the perspectives of those involved in one such formal mentoring program...
Article
Full-text available
Background Large numbers of young people die yearly due to homicide, but little is known about homicide during adolescence. Research primarily focuses on youth violence among young men and masks important gender-related factors inherent in the adolescent age group. Although young women are less likely to be victims of homicide, violence against wom...
Chapter
Full-text available
Patterns of violence change across the life-course, yet children of all ages are vulnerable to multiple forms of physical injury and abuse: sexual abuse, psychological and emotional abuse and degradation, maltreatment and neglect. The family has enormous potential to protect children and provide nurturing environments that foster physical and emoti...
Article
The road traffic crash injury burden significantly impacts the lives of South African children. This study aimed to assess the fatal and non-fatal pattern of road traffic crash injury of children under 13 years old from Metro West, City of Cape Town, from 1 January until 31 December 2014. The data were stratified by age, sex and mechanism of road t...
Article
Childhood sexual abuse of boys was examined in a longitudinal cohort in South Africa, with data on abuse collected at six age points between 11 and 18 years. Potential personal and social vulnerability of male sexual abuse victims was explored and mental health outcomes of sexually abused boys were examined at age 22-23 years. Reports of all sexual...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Violence against children is a significant cause of personal suffering and long-term ill health, poor psychological adjustment, and a range of social difficulties, including adverse effects intergenerationally. Objectives: Using a large corpus of longitudinal data collected in the Birth to Twenty Plus cohort, to give an overview of e...
Chapter
This chapter provides further context for understanding filicide through a focus on South Africa. The chapter draws on data collected for the national child homicide study and the pilot child death review project to explore this phenomenon in a developing country context. Through a combination of these data sources, the authors find that filicide i...
Article
Full-text available
Sexual homicides of women and children are extreme forms of violence against women and children and are located within the broader context of gender inequality and social norms that condone sexual violence and gender based violence against women and children. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence and characteristics of sexual homicide...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Global mortality trends have changed over time and are expected to continue changing with a reduction in communicable diseases and an increase of non-communicable disease. Increased survival of children beyond five years may change mortality patterns for these children. There are few studies in Africa that explore the causes of mortali...
Article
Full-text available
This report presents findings from the Child Abuse Tracking Study, which investigated the practices of child protection workers in relation to case management; and compared practice with procedures outlined in law and policy, specifically focusing on inter-agency collaboration between agencies tasked with child protection.
Chapter
Historical and current patterns documenting intimate partner violence (IPV) consistently demonstrate higher prevalence in Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and African world regions (Devries et al. 2013) as well as among indigenous women around the world (see Chapter 10 this volume). Focusing specifically on intimate partner homicide, inte...
Article
Full-text available
Fatal child abuse is the severest consequence of violence against children. Yet, little is known about this phenomenon, as routine data do not describe it. Child death review (CDR) teams have been established to systematically review deaths from birth to adolescence as a public health response to better identify child abuse deaths, to develop polic...
Article
Full-text available
Fatal child abuse is the severest consequence of violence against children. Yet, little is known about this phenomenon, as routine data do not describe it. Child death review (CDR) teams have been established to systematically review deaths from birth to adolescence as a public health response to better identify child abuse deaths, to develop polic...
Article
Full-text available
Fatal child abuse is the severest consequence of violence against children. Yet, little is known about this phenomenon, as routine data do not describe it. Child death review (CDR) teams have been established to systematically review deaths from birth to adolescence as a public health response to better identify child abuse deaths, to develop polic...
Article
Child sexual abuse is endemic in South Africa, driven by high levels of gender-based violence and underscored by structural and social factors. This article aims to develop an understanding of the process of disclosure in a sample of female children and their caregivers. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 31 female children aged...
Article
Full-text available
South Africa (SA) has not met the child mortality target for the Millennium Development Goals, despite having invested substantially in programmes and policies to achieve these targets. The scale-up of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes reduced HIV transmission from mother to child, but this has not been sustained owing to li...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Child mortality trends in South Africa (SA) show a decrease, but remain high and appear to have plateaued. To attain the new sustainable development goals, we need a better understanding of causes of death and the associated factors. Objectives: To describe the SA child death review (CDR) pilot, the pattern of child deaths reviewed a...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Homicide of children is a global problem. The under-5-y age group is the second largest homicide age group after 15-19 y olds, but has received little research attention. Understanding age and gender patterns is important for assisting with developing prevention interventions. Here we present an age and gender analysis of homicides amo...
Article
Full-text available
To investigate injury-related mortality in South Africa using a nationally representative sample and compare the results with previous estimates. We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of medico-legal postmortem investigation data from mortuaries using a multistage random sample, stratified by urban and non-urban areas and mortuary size. We...
Article
Full-text available
Intimate femicide, the killing of a woman by an intimate partner, is the leading cause of female murder in South Africa. Research on men who kill in South Africa has highlighted the psychological damage caused by exposure to severe adversity in childhood, but this alone does not explain the gendered context of these murders. This article presents a...
Book
Full-text available
The South African Child Gauge is the only publication in the country that provides an annual snap-shot of the status of South Africa’s children. It is published by the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, to track South Africa’s progress towards realising children’s rights. The 2014 issue focuses on the theme 'Preventing violence against...
Article
Intimate femicide, the killing of a woman by an intimate partner, is the leading cause of female murder in South Africa. Research on men who kill in South Africa has highlighted the psychological damage caused by exposure to severe adversity in childhood, but this alone does not explain the gendered context of these murders. This article presents a...
Article
Large numbers of children are affected by child sexual abuse in South Africa. This study aimed to assess psychological adjustment of children post sexual assault. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with caretakers, and structured interviews using mental health assessment screening tools were given to children at three intervals over...
Article
Full-text available
To describe age- and sex-specific rates of child homicide in South Africa. A cross-sectional mortuary-based study was conducted in a national sample of 38 medicolegal laboratories operating in 2009. These were sampled in inverse proportion to the number that were operational in each of three strata defined by autopsy volume: < 500, 500-1499 or > 14...
Article
Full-text available
Although mental health impact of gender based violence has been documented for many decades, the impact of the socio-cultural dimensions and type of perpetrator on mental health outcomes has not been described outside of developed countries. We explore depression symptomatology four to six weeks post-rape in South Africa and examine whether this di...
Article
Full-text available
Death is the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence. Female homicide studies with data on the perpetrator-victim relationship can provide insights. We compare the results of two South African national studies of female homicide with similar sampling done 10 y apart. We conducted a retrospective national survey using a weighted cluste...
Article
Full-text available
Background The killing of a woman by an intimate partner is the most extreme outcome of intimate partner violence. Aims/Objectives/Purpose We compare the results of a national female homicide study in South Africa that described the epidemiology of intimate femicide for 1999 with the findings from a repeat study 10 years later (2009). Methods The m...
Article
Full-text available
Background There is a lack of national data on child homicides in South Africa and child abuse is considered to be a major problem. Yet, there is a limited understanding of the relationship between child deaths and abuse. Aim To describe the incidence of both overall child homicide and fatal child abuse by age and gender. Methods A national retrosp...
Data
The distribution of indicators off forensic pathology variables and forensic management of female homicide cases by suspect/perpetrator charged and suspect/perpetrator convicted (weighted data/unadjusted odds ratios). (DOCX)
Data
Characteristics of the victim, suspect/perpetrator and case investigation by whether or not the suspect/perpetrator was charged and whether there was a conviction among those charged (weighted data/unadjusted odds ratios). (DOCX)
Article
Full-text available
Forensic medicine has been largely by-passed by the tide of health systems research and evidence based medicine. Murder victims form a central part of forensic medical examiners' case load, and women murdered by intimate partners are an important subgroup, representing the most severe form and consequence of intimate partner violence. Our aim was t...
Article
South Africa has a female homicide rate six times the global average, with half of murdered women killed by an intimate partner. The gendered nature of such murders indicates the need to explore the masculinities of men who kill an intimate partner. This paper explores the childhoods of 20 men who were incarcerated for such murders and draws on 74...
Article
Full-text available
South Africa has a female homicide rate six times the global average, with half of murdered women killed by an intimate partner. The gendered nature of such murders indicates the need to explore the masculinities of men who kill an intimate partner. This paper explores the childhoods of 20 men who were incarcerated for such murders and draws on 74...
Article
Full-text available
South Africa has one of the highest rates of both rape and HIV infections. Of great concern is the possibility of HIV transmission during the assault, but adherence to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) has been varied and low. We developed a telephonic psycho-social support, leaflet and adherence diary intervention for rape victims and tested its imp...
Article
Full-text available
The criminal use of firearms in South Africa is widespread and a major factor in the country having the third-highest homicide rate in the world. Violence is a common feature of South African society. A firearm in the home is a risk factor in intimate partner violence, but this has not been readily demonstrated in South Africa because of a lack of...
Article
Full-text available
In South Africa's Western Cape province, interpersonal violence was identified among the key prevention priorities in the provincial government's Burden of Disease (BoD) Reduction project. To date, there are no adequate systematic reviews of the full range of potential intervention strategies. In response, available data and the literature on risk...
Article
Injury patterns and interpretation of injuries in homicidal deaths are important components of medicolegal autopsies. The objective of this article is to describe the incidence of female homicides and their related injury patterns with reference to autopsy practices in South Africa. A national retrospective mortuary-based study of homicides in wome...
Article
Full-text available
Levels of alcohol use are high in South Africa and not much is known about women's use of alcohol when murdered. The aim of this article is to describe the patterns of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at the time of death for female homicide victims and to explore the factors associated with having an elevated BAC. A subsample of a national, repre...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this article is to describe mortality of women from intimate partner violence (IPV) in South Africa using a retrospective national study in a proportionate random sample of 25 mortuaries. Homicides identified from mortuary, autopsy, and police records. There were 3,797 female homicides, of which 50.3% were from IPV. The mortality rat...
Article
Full-text available
To examine the incidence and patterns of intimate femicide-suicide in South Africa and to describe the factors associated with an increase in the risk of suicide after intimate femicide (i.e. the killing of an intimate female partner). A cross-sectional retrospective national mortuary-based study was conducted at a proportionate random sample of 25...
Article
To describe the epidemiology and forensic management of suspected rape homicide in South Africa, with the aim of promoting the recognition of this form of violence against women amongst forensic pathologists during post-mortem examination. A retrospective national study in a proportionate random sample of 25 medico-legal laboratories was carried ou...
Article
OBJECTIVE: To examine the incidence and patterns of intimate femicide-suicide in South Africa and to describe the factors associated with an increase in the risk of suicide after intimate femicide (i.e. the killing of an intimate female partner). METHODS: A cross-sectional retrospective national mortuary-based study was conducted at a proportionate...
Article
To explore safety for girls in schools, particularly how girls perceive and negotiate dangers and risks associated with the use of toilets. Participatory action research over a period of 3 days at three schools in South Africa. Informants were 81 girls 16 years and older, teachers and other relevant school personnel. Data were collected through foc...