**3.1 Characterizing rape victims and offenders**

This involved understanding the sex of the victim and offender, the age of both the victim and offender, the manner in which the rape was perpetuated, relationship between the victim and the offender, status of the victim and examining the concluded cases (**Table 1**).

Males constituted about 4% of the total number victims of rape reported for the past 5 years. On the other hand, the total number of female victims reported for the past 5 years by the two selected newspapers was three hundred and nineteen (319). In other words, females constituted about 96% of the total victims of reported rape cases within the period covered. Gill [24] has conceived rape as a criminal act that is targeted at women in order to humiliate, debase, overwhelm and control them. But Javaid [25] also found that in England and Wales, male rape are usually underreported and are affected by the masculine nature of the police subculture.

From **Table 2**, the total number of males was three hundred and twenty nine (329). That is males constituted about 99% of those who engaged in the act of rape for the past 5 years. On the other hand, the total numbers of females who engaged in the act of rape are two (2). This means that females constituted only about 0.6% of perpetrators of the act of rape. These findings indicate that males were more likely to engage in rape than their female counterparts. This is in line with the finding in the United States that female victims accounted for a total of 94% of all completed rapes, 91% of all attempted rapes and 89% of all attempted and completed rapes [26] (**Table 3**).

Victims within the age of 1–10 recorded a total of one hundred and nine (109), which is about 33% of the total victims of reported rape cases for the past 5 years. This figure is frightening when the ages of these victims are considered especially knowing that they are children. This thus means that children between ages 1 and 10 are at a high risk of falling victims to rape. Rape of this nature are scary because these children are innocent, tender, vulnerable and they are most times raped by people they trust and look up to such as teachers, uncles, fathers, step-fathers, grandfathers, neighbors, in-laws, family friends, etc. The psychological trauma they go through after this incident is more than that of adults. These victims are also at risk of contracting several sexually transmitted diseases such as STD, HIV/ AIDS and other complications such as lacerations which put their lives at risk. Daily Sun [27], reported an incident where two brothers who were teenagers raped their step-sister who was 6 years old to death.

*The suspects a 19 year old Felix and his 16 year old brother Stanley were said to have had carnal knowledge of the minor by forcefully penetrating her which led to severe injuries in the victim's private part. Aside from the injuries sustained after the alleged sexual abuse, little Miss Precious later developed protruding stomach, leading to medical complications that eventually cut short the life of the victim. Also according to report, the younger brother lured his elder brother into the act. He assured his brother that there was nothing to be afraid of and that he (Stanley) had been doing it with other children in the area.*

#### *Psycho-Social Aspects of Human Sexuality and Ethics*


#### **Table 1.**

*Sex of the victim.*


#### **Table 2.**

*Sex of the offender.*


*\* By "unknown" we mean those categories of rape victims reported with unspecified age. We included them to account for their victimhood in the study. However, non-inclusion of age does not make them less a victim.*

#### **Table 3.**

*Age of the victims.*

The breakdown of trust among family members who are supposed to provide protective custodies to their eventual victims call to question the weakness or lack of moral teaching/socialization in the perpetrators. This is because teenagers and adolescents continue to be arrested for contributing to the victimization of their "sisters." All that they use is exploiting the vulnerability of the victim and in cases where the victim raises alarm, they silence them with death. This implies they understood the implication of being caught in the act or engaging in such a taboo in Nigeria. It is incest for relatives in most cultures in Nigeria to have sexual relationships. When such happens the rapist may become terribly violent and kill the victim. In a case a boy murdered his 10 year old cousin who raised the alarm for defiling her. The suspect narrated that:

*Tawa met me at the passage of my house when she came to visit me on that fateful day. I asked her where she was going and she responded that somebody sent her* 

**25**

*Characterizing Rapists and Their Victims in Select Nigeria Newspapers*

*somewhere but decided to check on me. Tawa latter dragged me into my room where she removed my trousers and both of us had sex on my bed. Then, she put my manhood into her private part and started shouting. Following this, I started asking her the reason for the alarm she was raising. The alarm raised by Tawa was after two minutes of sexual intercourse between us. When she started shouting, I got hold* 

Furthermore, victims between ages 11 and 20 recorded the highest figure with a total of one hundred and fifty three (153), which is about 46% of the total victims of reported rape for the past 5 years by the selected two newspapers. The majority of victims at this range are teenagers, a period that is marked with growth and development of sexual features. This indicates that teenagers are more prone to being victims of rape than any other age category in Nigeria. The perpetrators here are also people in key positions of trust such as fathers, step-fathers; uncles, friends, family friends, cousins, grandfathers, and the clergy. For instance, a 12-year old was impregnated by a cleric in Lagos State whom she had thought was assisting her by providing her a shelter but who later exploited her weakness/vulnerability to get what he wanted. He lured and threatened to ensure the secret was not opened up. He ensured her compliance by providing her with what she needed but soon as she

*He (Alfa) lives inside our compound. One day, he just said that I should come to his shop and I went there. He told me that I did not have a shelter; I should be sleeping inside his shop pending when I would be able to secure a place. Whenever I was sleeping in the night on the pavement, he would come around 2 am and wake me up to follow him to his shop and have sex with him. Many people in this place are aware of it. The first time he forced his private part into me, he said I should not scream. He told me I should not tell anybody but people have been seeing us. When people tried to advise me, he said I should not listen to them. He started having sex with me since I was 10 years old. He told me if I start having sex with him, he would give me money and he lured me into the corner and started touching my breasts. I wasn't happy about it and I told him to use condom, but he refused and he warned me not to tell anybody. He warned that if I tell anybody, he would use juju (charm) on me because they said that he is from Ijebu. He was giving me* 

Going further, victims between ages 21 and 30 constituted a total of twenty eight (28) that is about 8% of the total victims of reported rape cases. Also victims between ages 31 and 40 recorded a total of twelve (12), which is about 4% of the total victims of reported rape cases in the past 5 years. In their own category, victims within the age of 41–50 recorded a total of three (3), which is about 0.9% of the total victims of reported rape cases. Also, victims between the ages of 51–60 recorded one (1) case, representing 0.3% while those aged 61–70 and 71 and above recorded only a total of five (5) rape cases representing 2% of the entire victims. From the foregoing, the findings revealed that the younger females are more susceptible to rape than the older females. They are at their prime and more attractive to rapist than older women. They constitute a cohort that can be easily manipulated, lured, coerced and yield to threat. This is because they are more vulnerable and lack of capable guardianship. While the ages of victims are younger, what age differen-

Offender demographics such as age are vital in providing information about which age grade are more likely than others to rape and where social control mechanisms can be channeled. **Table 4** shows that put together the youths and middle

*of her neck and nose and pressed them until she finally died [27].*

became pregnant, stopped caring for her. The victim stated that:

*money but he stopped since I got pregnant.*

tials exist between the victims of rape and their rapists?

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91705*

*Characterizing Rapists and Their Victims in Select Nigeria Newspapers DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91705*

*Psycho-Social Aspects of Human Sexuality and Ethics*

The breakdown of trust among family members who are supposed to provide protective custodies to their eventual victims call to question the weakness or lack of moral teaching/socialization in the perpetrators. This is because teenagers and adolescents continue to be arrested for contributing to the victimization of their "sisters." All that they use is exploiting the vulnerability of the victim and in cases where the victim raises alarm, they silence them with death. This implies they understood the implication of being caught in the act or engaging in such a taboo in Nigeria. It is incest for relatives in most cultures in Nigeria to have sexual relationships. When such happens the rapist may become terribly violent and kill the victim. In a case a boy murdered his 10 year old cousin who raised the alarm for

*By "unknown" we mean those categories of rape victims reported with unspecified age. We included them to account* 

*for their victimhood in the study. However, non-inclusion of age does not make them less a victim.*

**Sex Frequency Percentage** Male 329 99.4 Female 2 0.6 Total 331 100.0

**Sex Frequency Percentage** Male 12 3.6 Female 319 96.4 Total 331 100.0

**Age Frequency Percentage** Less than a year 1 0.3 1–10 109 32.7 11–20 153 46.1 21–30 28 8.4 31–40 12 3.6 41–50 3 0.9 51–60 1 0.3 61–70 3 0.9 71 and above 2 0.6 Unknown\* 19 5.7 Total 331 100.0

*Tawa met me at the passage of my house when she came to visit me on that fateful day. I asked her where she was going and she responded that somebody sent her* 

**24**

*\**

**Table 3.** *Age of the victims.*

**Table 2.** *Sex of the offender.*

**Table 1.** *Sex of the victim.*

defiling her. The suspect narrated that:

*somewhere but decided to check on me. Tawa latter dragged me into my room where she removed my trousers and both of us had sex on my bed. Then, she put my manhood into her private part and started shouting. Following this, I started asking her the reason for the alarm she was raising. The alarm raised by Tawa was after two minutes of sexual intercourse between us. When she started shouting, I got hold of her neck and nose and pressed them until she finally died [27].*

Furthermore, victims between ages 11 and 20 recorded the highest figure with a total of one hundred and fifty three (153), which is about 46% of the total victims of reported rape for the past 5 years by the selected two newspapers. The majority of victims at this range are teenagers, a period that is marked with growth and development of sexual features. This indicates that teenagers are more prone to being victims of rape than any other age category in Nigeria. The perpetrators here are also people in key positions of trust such as fathers, step-fathers; uncles, friends, family friends, cousins, grandfathers, and the clergy. For instance, a 12-year old was impregnated by a cleric in Lagos State whom she had thought was assisting her by providing her a shelter but who later exploited her weakness/vulnerability to get what he wanted. He lured and threatened to ensure the secret was not opened up. He ensured her compliance by providing her with what she needed but soon as she became pregnant, stopped caring for her. The victim stated that:

*He (Alfa) lives inside our compound. One day, he just said that I should come to his shop and I went there. He told me that I did not have a shelter; I should be sleeping inside his shop pending when I would be able to secure a place. Whenever I was sleeping in the night on the pavement, he would come around 2 am and wake me up to follow him to his shop and have sex with him. Many people in this place are aware of it. The first time he forced his private part into me, he said I should not scream. He told me I should not tell anybody but people have been seeing us. When people tried to advise me, he said I should not listen to them. He started having sex with me since I was 10 years old. He told me if I start having sex with him, he would give me money and he lured me into the corner and started touching my breasts. I wasn't happy about it and I told him to use condom, but he refused and he warned me not to tell anybody. He warned that if I tell anybody, he would use juju (charm) on me because they said that he is from Ijebu. He was giving me money but he stopped since I got pregnant.*

Going further, victims between ages 21 and 30 constituted a total of twenty eight (28) that is about 8% of the total victims of reported rape cases. Also victims between ages 31 and 40 recorded a total of twelve (12), which is about 4% of the total victims of reported rape cases in the past 5 years. In their own category, victims within the age of 41–50 recorded a total of three (3), which is about 0.9% of the total victims of reported rape cases. Also, victims between the ages of 51–60 recorded one (1) case, representing 0.3% while those aged 61–70 and 71 and above recorded only a total of five (5) rape cases representing 2% of the entire victims. From the foregoing, the findings revealed that the younger females are more susceptible to rape than the older females. They are at their prime and more attractive to rapist than older women. They constitute a cohort that can be easily manipulated, lured, coerced and yield to threat. This is because they are more vulnerable and lack of capable guardianship. While the ages of victims are younger, what age differentials exist between the victims of rape and their rapists?

Offender demographics such as age are vital in providing information about which age grade are more likely than others to rape and where social control mechanisms can be channeled. **Table 4** shows that put together the youths and middle


*\* Those in this category were not disclosed in the papers reviewed in our study. In other words, the age category was unspecified in the report which shows lapses in demographic reportage of age of rapists by Nigerian newspapers.*

#### **Table 4.**

*Age of the offender.*

aged (18–55) perpetrated highest percentage of rape within the period under coverage. With a percentage of 75.5% of the entire rape cases reported, these age categories constitute the deadliest in terms of rape. Reasons for its high prevalence among youths according to reports are unemployment, drug use, alcohol, coercive and sexual fantasies (resulting from pornography), peer pressure, hostility towards women (especially when the male advances are rejected), inadequate institutional support from the police and judicial system, vengeance, relationship conflict, indiscipline, wickedness and idle mind.

Refusal to date may make an offender rape a lady. This was the case when a 35 year old lured his victim out of the location where she could find help to where he is more comfortable. At the destination, he used weapon to threaten his victim and later became successful. After his arrest, he narrated:

*"Actually I have interest in her and I have been eyeing her for a long time but she refused to accept my proposal. It was since two years ago immediately we moved into that house and I saw her. I then told her that she should accompany me to Ikere-Ekiti that I want to pack some of my belongings there. So, we entered the same vehicle and when we got to Ikere, I told her that I wanted to reach my site, an uncompleted building. There was nothing much that happened there. I only held her hand and said she should let us have fun together. So when I was dragging it with her, mistakenly the bottle in my hand jumped up and wounded her in her head. She then fell down; I then had sex with her. And when we got home, she reported the matter to her sister" [27].*

Furthermore it is important to account for the increasing occurrence of rape among those aged 36–55. We found that midlife crisis which may make middle age men seek intimate relationship with a younger woman, boredom, work related challenges/stress (unemployment or sack), woman crisis (inability to attract the right woman) accounted for the reported rape cases among this cohort. For example inability to attract a woman owing to problem of finance made a 55 year old man impregnate a 13 year old girl. Again, the strategy is to explore the weakness of the victim in raping them. The rapist explains that:

*They (the girls) sell petty consumable things and each time they come to my house, I will lure them into the house with the excuse that I want them to watch TV. Since most of them do not have one in their houses, they would be glad to come in. I would play one of my videos where people are having sex (pornographic films) and in the process convince them to have sex with me. I am so ashamed of myself* 

**27**

*Characterizing Rapists and Their Victims in Select Nigeria Newspapers*

old rape victim narrated how she was rape by a 65-year old man.

*On Friday, my mummy was not around and he came to fetch water (like he normally does). When he was passing in front of our house, he asked me to follow him to come and collect biscuit. When I got to Baba's house, he put off my shoes and carried me to his bed. He removed my pants and lay on my chest. When I was shouting, he said I should not shout that he would give me biscuit and N20. When he finished, I saw blood coming out and Baba used a cloth to clean it. He said I should not tell anybody. He gave me biscuit and N20. He called me again the next* 

This shows that the rape actualized using luring but more importantly, we argue that the occurrence of rape is the convergence of a suitable target, willing offender

The study has examined the coverage of rape episodes in Nigeria. Specifically, we purposively selected two national newspapers with dedicated crime reporting pages for our study. Our goal was to sift from rape coverage by the selected print media, characterization of victims and rapists. In doing this we analyzed data around the age of the victims, sex of the victims and the age of the offender and

Findings indicated that females were reported more as victims of rape than males out of the 331 rape reports covered in the dailies. Although males were also victims of rape, the percentage was about 4%. This however should not be taken to mean that males are not victims of rape. What is most important is the socio-cultural environment within which rape occurs, ideological leanings of the reporters and the behavior of the criminal law in Nigeria with respect to male. We noted earlier that the law blinds it eyes against the tendency that a male can be raped in Nigeria which calls to question how male victims of rape will seek justice where their victimhood is not recognized. Furthermore, males were more prone to being perpetrators of rape than their female counterparts; however, females can also become perpetrators too. Concerning the age of victims, we found that the young adults and the middle aged were more susceptible to rape than any other age category. Conversely, the same cohorts of victims also featured prominently as

*because I have deflowered a lot of them through that process and they keep coming* 

*the much I have given those girls is N200 at a time. I felt that it is expensive spending much money on Adults. I know that it is a crime and I ask God to forgive me and give me a second chance. I was greedy that is why my wife abandoned me to my fate.*

The offenders who are classified as old age ranged from 56 and above and they recorded a total of forty (40) which is about 12% of the total reported rape cases. They are mostly grandfathers, fathers, step-fathers, guardians, and community leaders. They are people that the victims trust and hold in high esteem as emblem of wisdom. We found that they rape owing to boredom, indiscipline, idle mind, wickedness and the need to have intimate relationship with younger girls. A 7-year

Talking further on why he chose under-age girls, the rapist stated that;

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91705*

*day and did it again [4, 6].*

in the absence of capable guardianship.

supported this by victims' and rapists' narratives.

highest perpetrators of rape within the 5-year period.

**4. Conclusion**

*back for more.*

*Characterizing Rapists and Their Victims in Select Nigeria Newspapers DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91705*

> *because I have deflowered a lot of them through that process and they keep coming back for more.*

Talking further on why he chose under-age girls, the rapist stated that;

*the much I have given those girls is N200 at a time. I felt that it is expensive spending much money on Adults. I know that it is a crime and I ask God to forgive me and give me a second chance. I was greedy that is why my wife abandoned me to my fate.*

The offenders who are classified as old age ranged from 56 and above and they recorded a total of forty (40) which is about 12% of the total reported rape cases. They are mostly grandfathers, fathers, step-fathers, guardians, and community leaders. They are people that the victims trust and hold in high esteem as emblem of wisdom. We found that they rape owing to boredom, indiscipline, idle mind, wickedness and the need to have intimate relationship with younger girls. A 7-year old rape victim narrated how she was rape by a 65-year old man.

*On Friday, my mummy was not around and he came to fetch water (like he normally does). When he was passing in front of our house, he asked me to follow him to come and collect biscuit. When I got to Baba's house, he put off my shoes and carried me to his bed. He removed my pants and lay on my chest. When I was shouting, he said I should not shout that he would give me biscuit and N20. When he finished, I saw blood coming out and Baba used a cloth to clean it. He said I should not tell anybody. He gave me biscuit and N20. He called me again the next day and did it again [4, 6].*

This shows that the rape actualized using luring but more importantly, we argue that the occurrence of rape is the convergence of a suitable target, willing offender in the absence of capable guardianship.
