I will be discussing about whether a young sex worker, who is raped brutally, has the right to bring charges against her assailant. Secondly, I will discuss whether the assailant has the right to make the demand of keeping the child as the sex worker fell pregnant due to the terrible incident. Further Information Regarding the Scenario The sex worker is only in her twenties and has been tricking for three years. Tricking is a slang word for the act of prostitution. One night on her way home from work she is raped brutally. According to Dr L Kretzschmar, “Rape can be defined as the forced penetration of the penis or any other object into the vagina, mouth or anus against the will of the victim.”1 She became pregnant and wants to have an abortion but the assailant wants to keep the baby. Does the sex worker have the right to bring charges against her assailant even though she is a prostitute? A prostitute who is raped, and brutally at that, definitely has the right to bring charges against her assailant. Even though prostitution is illegal in South Africa, it is not one of our country’s biggest worries. Due to the unavailability of jobs here in South Africa, prostitution is rife and is not one of our country’s major concerns. However, rape is a major concern in our country! We have the highest rape rate in the world, with an estimated one thousand women raped every day. What makes this even more alarming is the mind boggling fact that “According to the Saturday Star only one in thirty-five rapes is reported and, according to POWA, a woman is raped every twenty-four seconds in South Africa.”2 The worst fact of all though is the fact that “only 1.3 percent of the men who rape women are ever convicted or charged.”3 Taking this alarming information into account, I believe that a prostitute who is raped has every bit of right to bring rape charges against her assailant. The crime of rape far outweighs the crime of prostitution anywhere in the world and should therefore not prevent any prostitutes from reporting rape and the fact that an estimate of only one in thirty-five people report rape makes it even more important that victims of rape report it to the police. Apart from the police not helping enough there are reasons such as the unresponsiveness of our police, the worry the victims have of being criticized by the public, dependency on their spouses etc. which hinder them from reporting the crime. This is a major problem as rapists will keep on raping because of such a low conviction rate therefore it is of crucial importance that a victim of rape reports it, even a prostitute! Yes, prostitution is a crime but there is no physical harm caused to others. Possible reasons for her rape There may be an argument that the prostitute who was brutally raped had sexually enticed the victim as prostitutes usually wear skimpy clothes. But according to Dr L Kretzshmar, this is improbable as the, “reasons identified for the high incidence of rape include: 1) power relations and the emasculation of men who ‘as a means of compensating for the lack of power, engage in violent acts.’ 2) the culture of violence and lawlessness which is part of South African society. 3) the failure of the criminal justice system to deal effectively with sexual crimes. 4) poor socio-economic conditions. 5) difficulties related to a society in the state of transition. 6) sexist values.” These facts are therefore an indication that the young woman’s tricking was not the main reason for her being brutally raped. Because she was ‘brutally’ raped makes me believe that she may have been victimized due to: ‘power relations and the emasculation of men who as a means of compensating for the lack of power, engage in violent acts.” With her being a prostitute and it also being late at night probably made the victim more vulnerable. Another reason why she may have been brutally raped