South Africa is known for having the highest number of sexual violence cases in the world. In response to these reports, the government has declared rape as a priority crime, and various measures have been put in place to address this scourge. Despite these measures, rape statistics have continued to escalate. It is against this background that this study sought to explore accounts of sexual offences, particularly reports of rape, from a sample of sex offenders. Data were drawn from five Correctional Centres in the Limpopo province. Nineteen sex offenders were selected through a purposive sampling approach and interviewed face-to-face. Discourse analysis was used to identify and analyse the patterns of talk that sex offenders drew upon to account for their sex offences. Findings revealed that ‘blame’ was the most dominant discourse cited. The ‘rhetoric of blame’ revolved around uncontained sexual desires, sexual entitlement, absent mothers, provocative dress code by women, and unfair laws that discriminated men when they asserted their sexual power in relationships with women. Multi-sectoral intervention strategies are recommended for deconstructing blame discourses that perpetuate rape offences in South Africa.

南非以世界上性暴力案件数量最多而闻名。针对这些报告，政府已宣布将强奸列为优先犯罪，并已采取各种措施来解决这一祸害。尽管采取了这些措施，强奸案的统计数字仍在继续上升。正是在这种背景下，本研究试图从性犯罪者的样本中探究性犯罪的记载，特别是强奸的报道。数据来自林波波省的五个惩教中心。通过有目的的抽样方法选择了十九名性犯罪者，并进行了面对面的访谈。话语分析用于识别和分析性犯罪者根据其性犯罪而进行的谈话方式。调查结果表明，“责备”是被引用的最主要的话语。“责备的修辞”围绕着无法控制的性欲，性权利，母亲不在场，妇女的挑衅性着装规定以及不公平的法律，这些法律在男性与女性的关系中断言其性能力时将其歧视。建议采用多部门干预策略，以消除在南非长期存在的强奸罪的非理性言论。