Prevalence of sexual violence against Children during COVID-19 lockdown in Ibadan, Nigeria

D.O. Adeyanju¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.7 , Issue.10 , pp.1-7, Oct-2021

Online published on Oct 31, 2021

Copyright © D.O. Adeyanju . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, sexual violence against children had become a global social and health burden. The lockdown, which was one of the major strategies adopted to contain the spread of the pandemic, had led to increased prevalence of sexual violence perpetrated by deviant adults against children ostensibly as a result of being forced to stay for longer times together at home. This study appraised the prevalence of sexual violence against children during COVID-19 lockdown in Ibadan metropolis. The multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents from two purposively sampled local government areas, which were Ibadan North Local Government and Ibadan North-West Local Government Areas. Questionnaires were administered on the selected respondents, and in-depth interview were also conducted with some NGOs and health workers in the metropolis. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used for data analysis, and chi-square goodness-of-fit test was conducted to test the hypotheses. The study showed that there was increased prevalence of sexual violence against children during the COVID-19 lockdown; perpetrators were mostly known to the victims; most victims were children under 18 years of age; the lockdown had made children more vulnerable to sexual violence; many of the cases were not reported to the police; and perpetrators were not adequately and decisively punished. To improve the protection of the children against sexual violence, community awareness and enlightenment should be intensified, why functional channels of reporting should be created. There is also the need for institutional empowerment and strengthening of the legal system to ensure stiff penalty for perpetrators of sexual violence against children to serve as deterrence for others. Furthermore, issues of child protection and development should be adequately considered in government policies, particularly in the event of future occurrence of pandemic of COVID-19 magnitude.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Prevalence, Sexual violence, Covid-19, Lockdown, Children, Ibadan Nigeria

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