Substance use among sex offenders in Benin Prison, Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Up to 50% of sexual offenders were actually intoxicated at the time of committing the offence. However, few studies have focused on substance use among sexual offenders in Nigeria. Therefore, the aims of this study were to find out the prevalence of sexual offence among the inmates at Benin Prison, Benin City, Nigeria and to compare substance use between sex offenders and non–sex offenders. It was a cross-sectional comparative survey that was carried out at the Benin Prison, Edo State Command. All the sexual offenders who gave consent were recruited for the study. A  comparative sample of non-sexual offenders at the prison was also recruited by systematic sampling technique to serve as the control group. A questionnaire that consisted of sociodemographic data and the World Health Organisation Questionnaire for Student Drug Use Surveys were used. The prevalence of sexual offence was 4.41%. The prevalence rate of lifetime alcohol use was 55.7% while the prevalence rate of lifetime cannabis use was 18.6%. However, lifetime alcohol use among sex offenders was 82.9% while it was 28.6% among non-sex offenders and the difference was statistically significant at a p-value of less than 0.05. Similarly, the lifetime prevalence rate of cannabis use among sex offenders was 37.1% while it was 5.7% among non-sexual offenders and the difference was also statistically significant at p -value of less than 0.05.

Keywords: Substance, sex-offenders, prison, Benin, Nigeria