BY Adeparua Damilola
08144147369
The rate at which rape is becoming rampant in the society is quite
alarming and the most dreadful part of it is the fact that people do
not get raped in confined places outside their homes these days but
they get raped right inside their homes by those who are supposed to
protect them. Recent happenings in the society expose fathers who rape
their female children consecutively and get them impregnated. Some of
these children die in the process of giving birth to these children
while some of them become teenage mothers with mental instability as a
result of the shame and depression such acts bring upon them.
These days, some men even rape women as a way of punishing them as
reported in the case of a rapist who confessed to raping a woman
because she refused to greet him! In addition, on June 10, 2020, in
Kano, as reported by BBC, a man confessed to raping over 40 women
including an 80 year old woman within one year.
The term ‘rape’ originates from the Latin word rapere, which means to
snatch, to grab or to carry off and since the 14th century, the term
has come to mean to seize and take away by force.
According to Wikipedia, rape is a type of sexual assault usually
involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration
carried out against a person without that person’s consent. This act
may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or
against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent such as one
who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability or
is below the legal age of consent.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines rape as a form sexual
assault while The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
includes rape in their definition of sexual assault; they term rape as
a form of sexual violence. The 1998 International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda defines rape as a”physical invasion of a sexual nature
committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive”.
As posited by a source, the age at which an individual may give
effective consent to sexual intercourse is commonly set in most
countries at between 14 and 18years while in some countries, it is 12
years. Sexual intercourse with a person below the age of consent is
termed statutory rape. In this case, consent is no longer relevant.
Statutory rape also refers to any kind of sexual assault committed
against a person above the age of consent by an individual in a
position of authority like employer, teachers, doctors and parent and
it often leaves the victims with long-term psychological and physical
damage including sexually transmitted diseases and the inability to
bear children.
Statistics shows that South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the
world of 132.4 incidents per 100,000 people. According to a survey
conducted by the South African Medical Research Council, approximately
one in four men surveyed admitted to committing rape.
It is also estimated that approximately 35% of women worldwide have
experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. In most countries
with data available on rape, less than 40% of women who experience
sexual violence seek help and less than 10% seek assistance from law
enforcement agencies.
Age is one of the factors, which enhance rape. Rapists go after
vulnerable or younger people who they can easily incapacitate.
According to Wikipedia, young women are usually found to be more at
risk of rape than older women are. Data from justice system and rape
crisis centers in Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua, New Guinea, Peru and
the United States of America state that between one third and two
thirds of all victims of sexual assault are aged 15 years or less.
Statistics also shows that women from ages 16-19 are four times more
likely to be victims of rape and sexual assault and female college
students ages 18-24 are three times more likely to experience sexual
assault.
In addition, alcohol and drug consumption may put one at risk of being
raped. Drug abuse among the youths of nowadays is a serious issue that
calls for a serious attention as videos showing many youths acting
under the influence of drug abuse surface online almost every day. In
such situation, if rape occurs, such victim may be unable to protect
her/himself or may even lead to death as a result of violence.
Furthermore, poverty can also enhance rape. People who are poor often
do not have time to monitor the activities of their children due to
their search for means of livelihood. Apart from the fact that they
engage their children in child labor which may at times send the
children away to unsafe places where they may get raped, majority of
them also stay out till late night, leaving their children with either
relatives or neighbors who may not be trustworthy
In our society, people show little or no concern for rape victims,
because they are usually more interested in the victim’s look or
appearance before the incident because it is believed that if one is
properly dressed, rape cannot possibly occur and this in effect leads
to more perpetration of rape in our society. The United Nations Women
posits that what a woman is wearing, what and how much she had to
drink and where she was at a certain time is not an invitation to rape
her.
Also, many rape cases go unreported while perpetrators go unpunished
because the society places more importance on family honor more than
people’s well-being as it is believed that such a case may bring
dishonor to the family’s image in the society.
In a bid to curb sexual related violence, UN action, which is aimed at
addressing sexual violence in conflict and beyond, was created in 2007
in response to the “call to action” of the June 2006 symposium on
sexual violence in conflict and beyond, held in Brussels. The
establishment of UN Action responds to calls from within the UN, as
well as from women’s rights organizations, nongovernmental
organization (NGO) and member states to elevate sexual violence
politically as a peace and security challenge and as a humanitarian,
human rights, gender and development issues.
Even though it is of utmost importance that measures are taken in
order to curb the menace of rape in the society, yet, unless the
society stop attaching certain depraving attribute to the men folk
like “men will always be men” or the misconception of men’s
entitlement to sex not minding wherever they get it from, putting an
end to rape in the society will be infeasible.
According to a source, rape can be curbed by challenging images of
violence against women in advertising, pornography and other forms of
media. Also by supporting women and men, who are working to end sexual
violence and recognizing that sexual violence will not end until men
become part of the solution.
Conclusively, no one deserves to be sexually harassed or assaulted
because it leads to shame, humiliation, confusion, fear, rage and
perpetual feeling of defilement; an inability to feel clean, an
overwhelming sense of vulnerability and a paralyzing feeling of lack
of control over the victims’ lives. Parents are urged to pay proper
attention to their children in order to ensure their safety and drugs
should not be abused for any reason as it is inimical to health and
hampers the well-being of the society.
