Victims & Victimology
Barriers to Rape Reporting for Nigerian Women: The Case of female University Students
This article presents the key findings of a research project investigating perceived relevance among barriers to reporting rape and sexual assault for female university students. Existing literature suggests that the refusal of victims of rape and other forms of sexual victimisation in Nigeria to report have social underpinnings. Using qualitative information gathered from in-depth interviews of 23 rape victims, the study found that rather than social stigma, the fear of retaliation by their ass ...
Exposure and Vulnerability of Children living in Unregulated Red-Light Areas of Ibadan, Nigeria
Although the practice of commercial sex work is illegal in Nigeria, sex work activities and brothels still thrive in residential neighbourhoods across the country, leaving residents as proximate and direct victims of unregulated sex business. Yet, relatively little research exists on the exposures and vulnerabilities of young adults who spend their childhood in communities that host sex business in the country. To address this, a qualitative study was conducted with people who had children that ...
‘Voiceless victims’: Children living in the Red-Light Areas of Ibadan, Nigeria
Much research work on victims of sex work, including studies employing feminist perspectives, focuses on sex work as either being a ‘victimless crime’, or women as victims, leaving the victimization of children as direct and proximate victims relatively unexplored. The practice of commercial sex work in Nigeria is illegal; however, sex business thrives in most urban centres with considerable prevalence of red-light districts. Brothels, strip clubs and other sex-oriented businesses that constitut ...
Gendered Challenges in the Line of Duty: Narratives of Gender Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Violence Against Female Police Officers
Gender discrimination and sexual harassment of female police officers by their male counterparts remain areas of liability where police departments appeared to have failed to effectively confront the nagging issues. However, the appreciable level of research conducted on these issues in the global North has not been matched by the South, where issues bordering on sexual violence have cultural underpinnings. Drawing from the case of the Nigeria Police Force, feminist analysis was used to explore ...
Emotional and Economic costs of Online Dating Scam: A Phenomenological Narrative of the Experiences of Victims of Nigerian Romance Fraudsters
Qualitative research on the experiences of victims of online dating romance scams is limited. Following a phenomenological framework, this study explores victims’ accounts of interactions with offenders from first contact, development of romance, patterns of exploitation, eventual revelation, and financial and emotional costs of dating fraud. Ten participants from six countries who were victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters took part in one-to-one, semi-structured video interviews and an interp ...
The Influence of Rape Myth Acceptance and Situational Factors in Defining Sex and Labelling Rape among Female University Students in Nigeria
Existing literature have posited that the problem of rape aggravates if it is unacknowledged as a result of the influence of rape myth acceptance. Being an understudied phenomenon, the present study sought to explore rape myths and examine situational factors that appear to differentiate women who experience various levels of victimisation. Through mixed-method victimisation surveys that covered four universities in Lagos and Ogun states, involving 206 respondents and 12 in-depth interviewees, t ...
Sexual Violence at Music Festivals and the ‘Theory of Silence’: Unravelling the ‘Hideous’ Sexual Assault Problem in Nigerian Open-air Musical Events
This study confronts the prevailing culture of silence that trails sexual victimization in Nigeria to explore the scale of the problem of sexual violence at open-air music festivals. In-depth interviews involving 47 female attendees of musical concerts, who had experienced different forms of sexual violence, were conducted. Findings revealed high severity of sexual assault, low reportage, and strong influence of rape myth acceptance. Refusal to report sexual victimization is informed by the fear ...
Image‑Based Sexual Abuse in a Culturally Conservative Nigerian Society: Female Victims’ Narratives of Psychosocial Costs
Background In the last few years, many countries have introduced laws combating image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), colloquially known as “revenge pornography.” However, the significant growth in the body of literature on the legal perspectives on IBSA, and the media coverage of high profile cases have not been equally met with appreciable victimization studies. Meanwhile, the need for a victim-centered approach in studying IBSA in Nigeria is underscored by the pervasiveness and normalization of se ...
“At Your Service”: Sexual Harassment of Female Bartenders and Its Acceptance As “Norm” in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria
Notwithstanding the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in the bar and restaurant industry, limited attention has been paid to empirically examining the dynamics of sexual crimes committed in the industry. To address this, a qualitative study was conducted with female bartenders in drinking bars within Lagos metropolis to explore the nature and patterns of sexual harassments they experienced, as well as their response, coping measures and bar management’s positions. Forty-seven interviews were co ...
‘To Serve and Be Abused’: The Use of Adolescent Girls as Waitresses in Outdoor Drinking Bars in Lagos, Nigeria
This qualitative study examined the risk exposure, nature, and incidents of sexual and other forms of abuse experienced by underage waitresses. Fourteen female bartenders of outdoor pubs within Lagos metropolis between the ages of 13–15 years, and 10 bar owners/managers of pubs with underage waitresses, were engaged in the study, while an inductive thematic analysis of the narratives was carried out. The engagement of young girls as waitresses was predicated on their being considered as sources ...
COVID-19 and gender-based violence: Investigating the ‘shadow pandemic’ of sexual violence during crisis lockdown in Nigeria
The COVID-19 pandemic created a myriad of problems including an increase in the cases of gender-based violence, prompting the United Nations Women to refer to the trend as a “shadow pandemic.” In spite of this trend, research exploring the impact of COVID-19 in Africa have given little consideration to issues bordering on gender. To address this, a qualitative study involving 19 women and girls who experienced sexual violence during the lockdown, and 6 officials of women and child protection ser ...
Sexual violence against women living with albinism in Nigeria: exploring abuse within a disability-specific context
The purpose of this study is to explore the disability-specific context within which sexual violence against women with albinism occurs. Drawing from feminist and disability theories, the violence, perceived vulnerabilities, post-assault reactions, and reporting behaviour of sexually assaulted women with albinism were examined. Findings indicate targeted sexual harassment and assault against women with albinism based on their perceived vulnerabilities and negative social perception. Victims were ...
Sexual Abuse of Elderly Women in Nigeria: A Sociological Exposition of an Emerging Crime
Indeed, appreciable research has considered the dynamics of sexual assault involving young victims. However, very little criminological research has considered the dynamics of sexual abuse of elderly people. To fill this void, this current study developed a profile of sexual abuse cases among women aged 50 and older, based on the accounts of their abusers. Specifically, the study investigated the motives and mechanisms for sexual abuse of the aged in the country as well as the factors that accou ...
Female Offenders as Victims of Gendered Violence by Officers of the Nigeria Police
In the mainstream media and sociological research, the issues of police brutality and use of force have remained prevalent. However, in spite of the appreciable attention given to police brutality against male citizens in international headlines and scholarly research, female victims have been relatively ignored. The aim of this paper is to explore the experience of female offenders with the police from the point of arrest through custody. Using a mixed-method research design, participants were ...
Domestic violence against men on familial relationships in Nigeria: Evidence from a qualitative study
Domestic violence against men has continued to affect familial relationships in the contemporary African society. While the discourse has received little attention in the academic domain, the menace persisted across households in Nigeria as stigma, shame and culture of silence affected reportage. Existing research on domestic violence predominantly centers on women as victims and men as perpetrators, the experiences of male victims have been largely marginalized. This article therefore investiga ...
Marry your rapist!: A phenomenological analysis of the experiences of women forced to marry their assaulters in their childhood
Child sexual abuse (CSA) and child marriage (CM) are two social realities that have drawn and sustained considerable research attention in Nigeria. However, research into the intersections of CSA and CM is scarce. This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of women who suffered CSA and were forced to marry their sexual assaulters in their childhood. Ten survivors were engaged in semi-structured interviews, and an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was utilized to identify ...
Pandemic policing and police sexual misconduct: voices of women sexually abused by COVID-19 enforcement officers
While global attention has been drawn to the reported spike in the rate of gender-based violence (GBV) occasioned by COVID-19 restrictions, there exists a clear gap in knowledge about incidences of GBV perpetrated by police officers in the course of enforcing COVID-19 laws. Drawing from the Nigerian experience, this qualitative study presents the accounts of 83 sexually victimized women. From the thematic analysis, their narratives of how COVID-19 lockdown facilitated their vulnerability to poli ...
On the ‘darkness of dark figure’ of sexual crimes: Survivors’ rape reporting experiences with the Nigerian police
While extensive studies have identified the influence of social perception and victims’ self-blame as factors responsible for underreporting of rape, fewer studies have explored victims’ interaction with police officers and possible impacts this could have on victims’ reporting behavior. Therefore, this study explores rape victims’ interaction with officers of the Nigerian Police in the course of seeking justice. Twenty-seven victims of rape who interacted with police and six key informants wo ...