Influence of police, the welfare office and the court in the management of victims of sexual violence in Lagos State

Abstract

The management of victims of sexual violence has been underreported due to the stigma associated with the report of sexual violence, therefore this study examined the influence of the police, welfare system and the court in the management of victims of sexual violence in Ikeja local government area of Lagos State. The study used a mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative method. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. A total number of one hundred and fifty (150) respondents were used. Fifty (50) respondents each from the three agencies. Also, ten (10) respondents were used for the in -depth interview. A standard questionnaire titled ‘Sexual Violence Wellbeing Questionnaire’ (SVWQ) was used. Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance and all were rejected. The study concluded that provision of rehabilitation services by the state government has greatly helped the victims of sexual violence that reported their case at the police force. Therefore, the study recommends there should be 24/7 helplines for people experiencing sexual violence and each state in Nigeria should create a safe-house for victims of sexual violence as Lagos State did.