Adolescent Perception of Rape in Institution of Higher Learning: Implication for Counselling

Abstract

Rape has continued to be a wide spread global problem in contemporary times. This study expands the empirical and theoretical understanding of adolescents’ perception of rape in the higher institutions of learning. Six hundred and eighty students from four Universities in South West Nigeria were randomly selected and given questionnaires. The study probed the students’ attitudes towards the perception of rape as a crime, the causative factors of rape, how rape is perpetrated, the psychological effects of rape on the victims and what measures they considered appropriate for curbing rape incidents on campuses. The results demonstrated that a significant proportion of the students perceived rape as a crime and that the moral decadence in the society has aggravated rape incidences while indecent dressing of female students among others factors have also encourage rape. Majority of the participants also held favourable attitudes towards major psychological setbacks on rape victims. There was a unanimous agreement by participants that introducing dressing code for female students and promulgation of stiff penalties for rapists would be effective palliative measures for curbing rape incidents. Counselling implications were thereafter highlighted for all stakeholders.

Keywords: Rape, Perception, Adolescents, Counselling Implications.