CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
    The role of women is crucial to the growth and development of any nation and the world in general. Considering the importance of women as mothers’ breadwinners, teachers, guardians and motherhood in the family, the one will agreed that they deserve respect, recognition and better treatment. However, the opposite is usually the case. Women are enslaved in a rentless circle of poverty and suffer from neglect, discrimination and exploitation. They are also subjected to different forms of violence by their male counter-parts (Davies, 1989).
    Adeoye (1996) defined violence as the use of force or subtle pressure and unrestrained action in the pursuance of an objective. He noted that the Nigerian newspapers are replete with news of violence has not excluded women in the smallest measure.
    The various forms of violence against women include wife bothering, rape, denial of self expression, female child labour, childhood marriage, female circumcision, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and exploitation, violence by law enforcement agents, negative cultural attitude and degrading traditional practice. The widow rites and nutritional taboos and denial of female education are also form of violence against women.
    According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for children and families (1998), most Americans understand, but not condone, how some forms of sexual abuse occur, it appears almost impossible for them to consent to the idea of sexual abuse. This is particularly true when the abuser is a parent or family member. Sexual abuse fuses those areas in which most people still experience discomfort, sexuality, power, gender domination and the horrific exploitation of an innocent child. Sexual molestation, like so many forms of abuse, wound, not only its victim but the significant others around her. It cuts-through families and communities, destroying trusts and the belief that some things simply do not happen in an enlightened society.
    From a general view, one in every four women may experience sexual violence or rape by an intimate partner. According to Dickson (1998), close to one-third of adolescent girls reported their first sexual experience as being forced; result of sexual abuse. Rape is an unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl without her consent or by force or with consent by means of threats or intimidation of any kind; it could be by fear of harm or false and fraudulent representation (Esen, 1989).
    According to Ndagunu (2002), rape is an attempt to lure, coerce or force the opposite sex into sexual relationship through the use of threats. Therefore, rape is most commonly understood to mean forcing a woman to have sex against her wishes by using physical or psychological force, threat or force, drugs deception, or any combination of these. Human are naturally endowed with sexual instinct, thus, they want to exhibit sexual behaviour in different ways if not controlled.
According to Esen (1989), rape is one of the violence crimes which subject its victims to physical, emotional and psychological trauma. It is associated with an increased risk of large range of sexual and reproductive health problems, with both immediate and long–term consequences. In Nigerian context, rape is viewed under the criminal justice and public order Act 1994 as a sexual intercourse with a man or a woman without his or her consent. Rape can also affect the social well-being of victims because individuals may be ostracized and stigmatized by their families or other as consequences.
    By and large, irrespective of gender, age, social class, ethnic background, sexual orientation, there was a general consensus as to what constitute a general definition of rape.  This definition was firmly focused around the question of consent and applied irrespective of whether subject was female rape or male rape. The only perceived difference between men and women as victim was that it was assumed that man stood a better chance of depending themselves against an assailant.
    The current sentencing guidelines for rape states that when an adult commits rape without any aggravating or mitigating features is not less than five years imprisonment. Where rape is committed by two men acting together, or by a man who has broken into or otherwise gained access to a place where the victim is living, or by a person who is in a position of responsibility towards the victim, or by a person who abducts the victims and holds her captive, the appropriate sentence is not less than eight years imprisonment. But if such crime is committed a number of times on different women or girls, a sentence of 15 years imprisonment or more may be appropriate sexual abuse is a form of violence, which is most rampart to woman and children, is an attempt to coerce an unwilling person to unwanted sexual attention (Brande Burg, 1982). It is the behaviour of individuals who use their powers and position in an organization to exert sexual gratification from their subordinates.
The Australian Institute of Health and welfare provides a useful national definition of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is any act which exposes a person to or involves an individual in sexual processes beyond his or her understanding or contrary to accepted community standards. (Augus and Woodward, 1995).