Aborisade Richard A
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria.
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2025 May;69(6-7):659-681. doi: 10.1177/0306624X221102781. Epub 2022 Jun 7.
The COVID-19 pandemic created a myriad of problems including an increase in the cases of gender-based violence, prompting the United Nations Women to refer to the trend as a "shadow pandemic." In spite of this trend, research exploring the impact of COVID-19 in Africa have given little consideration to issues bordering on gender. To address this, a qualitative study involving 19 women and girls who experienced sexual violence during the lockdown, and 6 officials of women and child protection services as key informants, was conducted. Findings indicated a variety of sexual violence directed toward participants including marital rape, incest, acquaintance rape, date rape, and stranger rape. The conditions of the COVID-19 lockdown not only created opportunities for motivated offenders, but also increased the vulnerabilities of women to sexual victimization. These findings advance the need to acknowledge the increase in sexual violence, reimagine government's policies, create awareness, and recognize women and child support networks as essential services during a lockdown.
新冠疫情引发了诸多问题，包括基于性别的暴力案件增多，促使联合国妇女署将这一趋势称为“影子大流行”。尽管存在这一趋势，但探讨新冠疫情对非洲影响的研究很少考虑与性别相关的问题。为解决这一问题，开展了一项定性研究，该研究涉及19名在封锁期间遭受性暴力的妇女和女孩，以及6名妇女和儿童保护服务官员作为关键信息提供者。研究结果表明，针对参与者的性暴力形式多样，包括婚内强奸、乱伦、熟人强奸、约会强奸和陌生人强奸。新冠疫情封锁的状况不仅为有动机的犯罪者创造了机会，也增加了妇女遭受性侵害的脆弱性。这些研究结果凸显了承认性暴力增加、重新构想政府政策、提高认识以及将妇女和儿童支持网络视为封锁期间基本服务的必要性。
