Reflections on Increasing the Value of Data on Sexual Violence Incidents against Children to Better Prevent and Respond to Sexual Offending in Kenya

Abstract

In many countries, data collection on sexual violence incidents is not integrated into the healthcare system, which makes it difficult to establish the nature of sexual offences in this country. This contributes to widespread societal denial about the realities of sexual violence cases and the collective oppression of survivors and their families. Capturing detailed information about incidents (e.g., characteristics of perpetrators, where it happened, victims, and the offence) can dispel myths about sexual violence and aid in crime prevention and interventions. This article examines how information about sexual violence incidents—in particular, offences committed against children in Kenya—is gathered from two different data sources: the Violence Against Children Survey (VACS) and data collected by the Wangu Kanja Foundation (WKF), a survivor-led Kenyan NGO that assists sexual violence survivors in attaining vital services and justice. These two surveys provide the most comprehensive information about sexual and gender-based violence. The analysis indicates that, while the VACS provides information about the prevalence of sexual violence, it provides less detailed information about the nature of violence (e.g., characteristics of perpetrators, victims, and the offence) compared with the WKF dataset. We critically reflect on how validity and informativeness can be maximised in future surveys to better understand the nature of sexual violence, as well as other forms of gender-based violence, and aid in prevention and response interventions/programming.

A Systematic Review of Criminal Justice Initiatives to Strengthen the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Violence in East Africa

“…Thus, there are many barriers to disclosing SV, with the perceived costs of reporting an incident (e.g., re-traumatization, stigmatization, etc.) often outweighing its anticipated rewards (Ji et al, 2022). Consequently, SV survivors often instead rely on their community’s resources and informal accountability methods (McGlynn et al, 2016; Wagner et al, 2022).…”