TODAY'S LEADERS FORUM PRAISE 2019: Prevention of sexual assault - LEO. ADEBAYO ADEYINKA ADEWUMI

Today's Leaders Forum annual anniversary tagged "Praise 2019".

 

LEO. ADEBAYO ADEYINKA ADEWUMI

What do we understand by Sexual assault?

 

According to dictionary meaning....

Sexual assault Is a physical attack of a sexual nature on another person or a sexual act committed without explicit consent.

 

A larger percentage of the populace think sexual assault can be attributed to female gender alone. 

But the truth is, it can be attributed to both gender but the question is can a man or guy be sexually abused or assaulted?

 Sexual assault occurs commonly worldwide and is particularly pervasive in the developing world which our country falls under.

 

The background to sexual violence is important in the understanding of the ramifications of the problem. Some elements that offer the means to the prevention of sexual assault in the community are important highlights especially where the means - expertise and facilities - for managing cases of sexual assault is grossly inadequate.

 It is important to understand the ramifications of sexual assault, as not only a physical act, but also could be verbal or visual sexual abuse or any act that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention .

 Most of us think it only when there's intercourse ( sex) someone is assaulted.

Sexual assault is  not discriminatory to sex like I said earlier on, both males and females are affected but studies have shown that the number of female sexual assault victims (and assault perpetrated by males) is far greater than male victims.

 

TYPES OF SEXUAL ASSAULT:

1. Child Sexual Abuse

2. Domestic violence

3. Elderly Sexual assault

4. Groping

5. Rape

6. Sexual harassment

7. Mass Sexual assault. 

Child Sexual Abuse:

Is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. 

Domestic violence:

Domestic violence is violence or other abuse by one person against another in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation.

 

Elderly Sexual assault:

Elderly sexual assault is victimization of persons over the age of 60, most of whom suffer from decreased functionality, frailty and weakness, and therefore are reliant on caretakers.

 

PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT:

1. Public Enlightenment

2. Education

3. Institutional Framework

4. Emphasis on primary prevention

5. Pre assault self defense awareness lecture.

Public Enlightenment:

Public enlightenment has been shown to be a critical tool in changing behaviour, attitude, beliefs and value system of people. 

Therefore there should be intense public enlightenment and education at schools, social clubs, cultural group gatherings, churches, mosques and through the media, to first of all, demystify the myths about sexual assault.

 Education:

The Universal Basic Education (UBE) recently introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria through an enabling federal law was meant to make education compulsory and free for all children up to the junior secondary school level. It has been shown that education of children, especially the girl child, goes a long way in boosting the socio-economic and sociocultural status of women in the society.

 

Institutional Framework:

Prevention of sexual assault will remain a mirage until society puts in place institutional framework to deal comprehensively with actual cases of sexual assault. 

This approach involves functional, skilled, and synchronized services and also includes the criminal justice system, the police, social services, and sexual assault services. Encouraging victims/survivors of sexual assault to break their silence by making freely available such services, which should be community based, and the successful prosecution of perpetrators, will serve as a deterrent and hopefully prevent the next person from falling victim.

 

Emphasis on primary prevention:

This modality stems from the summary of findings of progress and challenges in creating safe and healthy environment for Victorian women in a study of community attitudes to violence against women. The document highlights different strategic levels that apply in the prevention of violence against women.

 

Adapting these provisions specifically for sexual assault and emphasizing on primary prevention (i.e. preventing SEXUAL assault before it occurs), which should be the ultimate goal of any sexual assault prevention programme, may entail the following levels, either alone or in combination depending on the affected populace.

Pre Assault self Defense:

In some parts of the world women’s self-defence courses, usually organized by institutional Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) programme do in fact exist.

This is a rather bold attempt to correct the traditional role ideology especially in the more prevalent sexual assault against women, where a societal expectation about sexual assault exists that men will be aggressive and women will be passive. However it is equally important to avoid any negative effects of self blame in the unfortunate event of a sexual assault despite possessing self defence skills.

 

Conclusively:

It is my belief that sexual assault can be prevented but apparently there is urgent need for a paradigm shift from the radical feminists’ movement of the old ways to expanded prevention efforts which recognize differences based on culture, sexuality, ability and age and gender. 

It also involves recognizing that although some men (and relatively few women) are clearly part of “the problem” and others are clearly already part of the solution, a great number of men and women fall somewhere in the middle. 

This bulk of people in the middle, especially the male gender, may be well-meaning men who are looking for opportunities and direction about what steps they can take in preventing sexual assault. It is therefore time for an all inclusive fight against sexual assault; a fight which should be devoid of sexist bias for greater efficacy; and a fight which indeed is attainable.