The Perception of Children on Child Sexual Abuse:The Case of Children in Some Selected Schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana

Solomon Sika-Bright, Chinyere C. P. Nnorom

Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.

DOI: 10.4236/aasoci.2013.36033                

Abstract

Children are mostly the victims of child sexual abuse however, most children have little or no idea about what child sexual abuse entails and the forms it takes. In addition, the opinions of children have mostly been neglected in cases of child sexual abuse. The study therefore was carried out to explore how much children know about child sexual abuse and to suggest ways of publicising the phenomenon among children. A proportional sample of 256 children was selected from five public basic schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis to participate in the study. From interviews with the children, varied ideas were obtained. Parenting styles, child’s age, child’s educational level and sex of the child were found to influence the perception of the child on child sexual abuse. The cultural belief of “sex as a secret” was also found to be integrally related to child’s perception on sexual abuse in Cape Coast. Recommendations are made and the most important thing that the Ghana Education Service should intensify is sex education in the basic schools’ curriculum to enable them to identify and report such cases whenever experienced.

Keywords

Abuse; Cape Coast; Child; Sexual; Ghana; Perception

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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