A review of incidents of rape from police records in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Sexual coercion is a serious public health problem in many countries of the world. Sexual coercion is the use of force or the attempt to force another individual through violence, threats, verbal insistence, deception, cultural expectations, and economic circumstances to engage in any sexual activity against his or her will. Sexual coercion is a continuum of behaviors ranging from unwanted touch, verbal intimidation, rape, to cultural expectations that require girls to marry and have sexual intercourse with men against their will [1]. Although sexual coercion affects both genders, women arc more likely than men to be victims of coercion [2-3]. Coerced sex is o f public health concern not only because it reinforces women's subordination to m e n but also due to its devastating impact on the reproductive health of victims [1]. Concern about coercive sex has heightened in recent years because of its association with HIV infection [4]. Forced sex is linked with HIV infection in three ways. Firstly, coercive sex directly increases a woman's risk for HIV through resulting physical trauma [5-6] which creates a pathway for HIV to enter a woman's body during sex with an infected person. A study from Rwanda found that women who had experienced forced sex were significantly more likely to be infected with HIV than those who had not [5]. Secondly, us e o f violence and threat of violence in sexual relationships undermine a woman's ability to negotiate safe-sex with the perpetrator of sexual coercion. Finally, wome n w h o have been victims of sexual abuse during childhood have greater propensity to participate in risky sexual activities as adolescents or adults thereby increasing their chance of infection with HIV [6]. Rape is the most severe form of sexual coercion and it is a criminal offenc in man y countries, including Nigeria where convicted perpetrators are liable to suffer long jail terms. There arc three sexual-related offence s in the Nigerian laws, namely rape, attempt to rape, and defilement. Rape and the attempt to rape are punishable by life imprisonment and 14 years imprisonment for convicted perpetrators respectively. Defilement is sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13 years, an offenc c also punishable by life imprisonment [7], Despite the existence of these laws victims of rape seldom seek judicial redress [8]. Until recently few studies in Nigeria have investi gated rape because of the sensitivity associated with it. The few available surveys on rape have focuscd mainly on young persons and found prevalenc e ranging from 4 % among female apprentices [9], 4.4 % in secondary school students [10], to 6% in young female hawkers