Talk:Child sexual abuse in Nigeria

Source request

Wikicology, it might be worth looking at one example here of the sourcing issues. I see this is an article you've started cleaning up.

It states:

"The National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) report in 2008 suggested that over 25% of adolescent in Nigeria often experience the first sexual abuse at the age of 15." [1]

You sourced this to:

"Index of NDHS Reports - National Statistics Office". Retrieved 17 September 2014.

"NDHS 2008". Retrieved 17 September 2014.

The first reference seems to lead to a general page listing Demographic and Health Surveys, though I can't get it to load and the URL seems to be from the Philippines (gov.ph). The second reference leads to the 2008 Demographic Health Survey for Nigeria. But it doesn't give a page number, so we don't know how to find the information. And there's no reason to use the 2008 report when there is a 2013 Demographic Health Survey available for Nigeria. [2]

Can you say where you found: "The National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) report in 2008 suggested that over 25% of adolescent in Nigeria often experience the first sexual abuse at the age of 15"? SarahSV ^(talk) 16:54, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

• Forgot to @Wikicology: SarahSV ^(talk) 16:55, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

SlimVirgin, thank you so much. The truth is, I'm currently disturbed and I'm yet to commence a major cleanup on the article and my articles generally. I just returned home since last week Sunday. Hoever, I found it here. This is one of my old articles. I created it few months after I began editing. The truth is, it has a problem too. Majority of the old articles too have major problems. Now that I'm back home, what I intend doing is to move all my articles back to draft and start working on them, then ask 1 or 2 experienced editors to review before I will move any of them to mainspace. The hypothesis is that I'm Excessively enthusiastic as a young man. I will work relentlessly to fix my lapses. Thanks. Wikic¤l¤gy^{t@lk to M£} 17:16, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply Wikicology. The British Journal of Education article you referred to above has simply copied that portion of this article (see below). So you can't use it as a source.

Please don't move any of your articles to draft space or anywhere else. Other people have edited them, so the community will have to decide what to do with them now. SarahSV ^(talk) 17:59, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

• I was able to access http://www.census.gov.ph/survey/demographic-and-health/ndhs-index – it is indeed a list of family and health surveys published by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
• I had a look at both the 2008 and the 2013 Nigerian NDHS. After an hour's searching, I have been unable to find anything in either the 2008 NDHS or the 2013 NDHS that would support the 25% figure in the article. Related figures are given
  • on page 309 of the 2013 NDHS, in section 16.6, "Age at first experience of sexual violence" (2.6% by age 15; the percentage of women aged 15–19 who have not experienced sexual violence is 94.4%; note that the percentages for each age group do not add up to 100% horizontally, for reasons unclear to me),
  • on page 338, section 17.2.5., "Sex before age 15" (among teenage orphans and vulnerable children, the percentage of female children who had sexual intercourse before age 15 is 16.5%, among the rest of the population it is 15.2%.
• Neither "sexual violence" nor "sexual intercourse" are necessarily identical in meaning to "child sexual abuse". However, note that data on "sexual violence" were collected by using the question, "At any time in your life, as a child or as an adult, has anyone ever forced you in any way to have sexual intercourse or perform any other sexual acts when you did not want to?" (page 303), which would seem to cover most if not all forms of child sexual abuse. The text does add, "Although this approach to questioning is generally considered to be optimal, the possibility of underreporting of violence cannot be entirely ruled out in any survey." But even so, it seems to me that the 25% figure given in the article lacks any firm basis, and may be very much too high.
• So I'm appalled to see this figure uncritically quoted (see below) in the British Journal of Education (although frankly I am amazed that this poorly written BJE article ever passed BJE peer review in the state it's in). And it's worth pointing out that SarahSV's vigilance is the only reason why Wikipedia (barely!) escaped another case of citogenesis here, as Wikicology would have happily installed the substandard BJE article, which used unattributed text copied from Wikipedia, as a source here. Circular reference loops like that have nothing to do with spreading open knowledge, and everything to do with corrupting and degrading the world's knowledge base. Andreas JN466 04:02, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

• Andreas, I found the 25 percent figure (for girls) in a UNICEF press release: "UNICEF reported in 2015 that one in four girls and one in ten boys there had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18." SarahSV ^(talk) 05:41, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
  • Thanks. The age is different (the article originally gave the 25% figure for age 15). And it's worth noting that the UNICEF figure is at variance with the 2013 NDHS (p. 309), which gives percentages in excess of 90% for women "who have not experienced sexual violence" for all age groups below and above 20, reportedly based on the "At any time in your life, as a child or as an adult, ..." question. I have no idea whether the Nigerian Demographics and Health survey has a good reputation or not. I feel well out of my depth here. Andreas JN466 05:57, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

• Andreas, the Demographic and Health Surveys have a good reputation and are one of the surveys that UNICEF bases its figures on. Perhaps the two documents use different definitions. I may look more closely if I have time, though I hadn't planned to become deeply involved in this article. SarahSV ^(talk) 06:00, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
  • Thanks, Sarah. They say the best way to find the right answer on the internet is to post a wrong answer, because previously uninvolved people will rush in to try to post the right one. ;) I guess by that token, if Wikipedia contains a lot of wrong answers "it works". However, as far as this article is concerned, it will have to work without me. I'm going to bed. (You know what my better half would tell us ...) Best wishes across the pond, Andreas JN466 06:15, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Comparison with British Journal of Education

Wikipedia (added September 2014):

Child sexual abuse is pervasive in every part of the world. According to United Nation, BBC reported in September 2014 that 1 in 10 girls had experienced sexual violence at early stage of their lifetime. Child sexual abuse is one of the health and human right challenge in Nigeria.

The National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) report in 2008 suggested that over 25% of adolescent in Nigeria often experience the first sexual abuse at the age of 15. However, cases reported to the law enforcement agents of Nigeria (Nigerian police) are less than unreported cases by parents or guidance of the victims.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported in 2013 that 1,200 girls were raped in cross River state, a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria that share a common border with Cameroon to the east.

British Journal of Education (dated March 2015):

Sexual abuse is passive [sic] in every part of the world. According to United Nation BBC reported in September 2014 that 1 in 10 girls had experienced sexual violence at early stage of their life time (Herrenkohl, 2005). Child sexual abuse is one of the health and human right challenges in Nigeria. The National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) report in 2008 suggest that over 25% of adolescents in Nigeria often experience the first sexual abuse at the age of 15 (NDHS, 2014). However cases reported of the law enforcement agents of Nigeria (Nigeria Police) are less than unreported cases by parents or guidance of the victims. The News Agency of Nigeria reported in 2013 that 1,200 girls were raped in Cross River State, a coastal state in south south Nigeria, that share a common border with Cameroon to the east (Vanguard News, 2014).

SarahSV ^(talk) 17:59, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

• Holy shit. I'm about to prepare for a course (mistakenly) called "Don't Trust Wikipedia". I guess I can use this as an example--and the BJE as an example of...well, I don't know what to call it yet. "Sloppy" doesn't come close. Drmies (talk) 16:33, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
  • I would be grateful if you could publicise that example to the best of your ability, Drmies. More work needs to be done to foster Wikipedia literacy among the general public, and this case should definitely enter the literature (... along with some others I could mention ...). Andreas JN466 17:01, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Recent edits

Hi Wikicology, following on from my post here, some more observations.

I can't find the 2015 UNICEF violence survey referred to in the first ref, so that ref will have to do for now. It says "six out of 10 children experience some form of violence before they turn 18, with half of them experiencing physical violence." So it's 18, not 15.

Re: "According to BBC, United Nation reported in September 2014 that 1 in 10 girls had experienced sexual violence at early stage of their lifetime," refers to a worldwide figure, not to Nigeria. And, as I said on your talk, it's better to refer directly to the UNICEF report, which is here. (And it's UNICEF, not the United Nations, though UNICEF is a UN body).

The refs for the last sentence are unclear: "The punishment for child sexual abuse in Nigeria is life imprisonment according to the criminal code act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under section 218."

The first is subscription only, and the second is too general. Better to link directly to this page or find a high-quality secondary source that isn't behind a paywall. And according to that page, the penalty depends on the age and gender, and whether consent was given; it appears that boys are regarded as able to consent from the age of 14. Given the complexity, we would need a high-quality secondary source to make sure we have it right. SarahSV ^(talk) 20:23, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Second sentence

Re: "According to a 2014 UNICEF report, around 45 percent of females aged 15–19 in that country had experienced sexual violence by the age of 14," the UNICEF table on p. 73 of the report unfortunately does not give a figure, so I can only judge that it's around 45 percent; in fact it looks a bit over.

I've looked through the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey, which I assume the UNICEF report is based on, and haven't found the figure yet, but I'll add it if I do. SarahSV ^(talk) 02:45, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

UNICEF

According to a 2014 UNICEF report, around 45 percent of females aged 15–19 in that country had experienced sexual violence by the age of 14."Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children", New York: United Nations Children's Fund, September 2014, figure 4.3, p. 73.

No, this is wrong. It's 45 percent of those aged 15-19 who had ever experienced forced sexual intercourse or any other forced sexual acts, according to the detailed caption on the bar graph. (The main caption uses the term "sexual violence" which the document defines extremely widely on p. 60, to include, for example, "exposed to sexual comments or advances by a peer", but I suspect that is not what is meant here.)

This is not a particularly useful statistic. Indeed it is misleading because it represents that 45% of those who experience forced sexual acts by the age 19 will have had their first such experience by age 14. This is no so, because the sample is not of those over 19, but of those between 15 and 19.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 03:27, 3 April 2016 (UTC).

I'm sorry if I made a mistake about that. I had to stop editing for dinner, so I read it too quickly. I've been looking for news source or UNICEF press releases but so far I've found only emotional, sexual and physical abuse figures, not sexual alone. I wonder whether we have enough sources for an article on this. SarahSV ^(talk) 05:10, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Shortly after writing the above, I found a figure: "UNICEF reported in 2015 that one in four girls and one in ten boys there had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18." [3] SarahSV ^(talk) 05:31, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

There will be sufficient material. We should cover (briefly) Boko Haram's abduction of girls (boys they shoot or blow up) in northern Nigeria, and the plight of the returnees.[4]

UNICEF do a tremendous amount of good in the world, but they are not my favourite information source, since the message is sometimes allowed to obscure facts in their written material.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 11:50, 3 April 2016 (UTC).

Rape

I removed the following, since it is relevant to rape in general rather than child sexual abuse in general. Over 20 reports of rape were recorded in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, every month as of September 2013, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. The report identified unemployment is one of the causes of sexual violence."Ibadan records over 20 new rape cases monthly — NAN survey". Premium Times. 26 September 2013.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 03:02, 3 April 2016 (UTC).

First sentence

Re: "Child sexual abuse in Nigeria is a felony under chapter 21 of the country's criminal code". This isn't wrong, but it could be more precise and comprehensive. There are several relevant sections. [5] Section 218: "Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of thirteen years is guilty of a felony ..." Other sections deal with boys and older girls. I don't have time to do more right now, so if someone else wants to make it more accurate, please go ahead. SarahSV ^(talk) 05:28, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

• Changed to "Child sexual abuse in Nigeria is an offence under several sections of chapter 21 of the country's criminal code." SarahSV ^(talk) 06:36, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

PATA survey

I looked, unsuccessfully, for the survey cited by Morenike Ukpong

I did find, though, that, according to Differences in Sexual Practices, Sexual Behavior and HIV Risk Profile between Adolescents and Young Persons in Rural and Urban Nigeria Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan, Sylvia Adebajo, Adedayo Adeyemi and Kayode Micheal Ogungbemi (PLOS 1)

"Reasons given for sexual debut ranged from love (57.4%), to having fun (18.4%), peer pressure (16.5%) and forced sex initiation (5.3%). No respondents reported initiating sex for money."

However I have problems with this paper. On page 7 the table says

	Rural			Urban
	Male (%) n=210	Female (%) n=149	p value	Male (%) n=227	Female (%) n=195	p value	Total (%) n = 772
Mean age (±SD) at sexual début	17.2 (±2.0)	17.1 (±2.1)	1.00	18.3 (±2.8)	16.6 (±2.5)	0.000	15.1 (±5.2)

Clearly the mean for the whole population cannot be less than the minimum (or more than the maximum) of the means of the exhaustive sup-populations.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 13:27, 3 April 2016 (UTC).

(Note: Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan may well be the same person as Morenike Ukpong.) R.F. 2016-04-3Z13:40