‘65 year old man rapes, impregnates own teenage daughter’: Rape Representation in Two Nigeria Newspapers

Abstract

Rape of females in Nigeria has reached a disturbing proportion. While the media has played a major role in creating awareness about rape, their representations of rape are crucial in determining post-rape responses. This study, therefore investigates newspaper coverage and representations of rape in two select newspapers in Nigeria (2012-2016). It utilizes two national dailies (The Punch and The Sun) with dedicated crime pages to understand the frequency of reportage, factors underlying low or non-reportage of rape by victims, and the dominant frame used in reporting rape. Findings show that 331 cases of rape were reported within the period with southwestern part of the country recording largest occurrence. Low or non-reporting behavior of rape by victims was affected by fear of stigma, fear of the rapist due to threats, religious sentiments, family interventions, and inability to access the media. The dominant frame utilized in reporting rape was human interest frame. The paper recommends diagnostic and prognostic frames to attract informed policies and give justice to the raped.

Effect of social cohesion on crime control strategies among rural dwellers in Nigeria

“…The analyzed survey data showed a correlation between the social cohesion variables and nine special strategies for crime control that were adopted by the law enforcement agencies. These strategies are those that have been previously analyzed by earlier studies (Tade & Udechukwu, 2020). The social cohesion variables were considered within the rural areas and these targeted some crime control mechanisms like arresting of offenders, investigation and detection of crime, prevention of crime, prosecution process and charge and bail condition.…”

“…(ii) Do strong social cohesion variables affect the crime control strategies specially adopted by the law enforcement agents in the rural areas of Nigeria? We slightly departed from the general effects of crime control and punishment like rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, retribution and restoration as enunciated by Gyekye (2011) and Perkins (2016) but considered the five other general crime control mechanisms in various existing studies (Tade & Udechukwu, 2020). These dependent variables were indirectly focused on many subvariables questions relating to-what are the rural dwellers' perceptions to (i) charge of suspect to court, (ii) arrest of suspects with or (iii) without warrant, (iv) power to search with warrant searches or (v) not with search warrant and (vi) issues relating to the trial procedure.…”

“…To achieve the main objective of the study, we adopted a single-compound question-how does the social cohesion and communal relationship variables affect the crime control in the rural areas of Nigeria? Here, we linked the eight variables within social cohesion and communal relationship contexts to the five prominent crime control strategies as enunciated by Tade and Udechukwu (2020). These crime control strategies were arresting offenders, investigating and detecting crime, preventing crime, prosecution process in criminal procedures, and charge and bail conditions.…”