De zonas de cultivo y pastoreo a dique de colas

This third section examines if female survivors of child sexual abuse who attend school are more likely to have a different profile of sexual perpetrator than female peers who do not attend school. This second research question also helps explain the findings from the first. From a human ecological development standpoint, girls out of school may be more likely to interact more regularly with a wider variety of men (like local businessmen, vendors, family members, or community members) than girls spending a large part of their day in school. Likewise, schoolgirls may interact more frequently with men in school settings (more days of the week, more hours in the school day). Child protection literature suggests that sexual assault victims often know their perpetrators before the incident or attack (Berns, 2017; Rogers & Davies, 2007; Stoltenborough et al., 2011; Ezugwu, Ohayi, Iyoke, & Nnaji, 2017). The qualitative interview data further supports this fact. A gender-based violence (GBV) officer from the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Protection (MOGCSP) states, “Most of the [child rapists in Liberia] are people that know them [the victims] … people who are supposed to protect them, are the ones that do this thing [rape].” Furthermore, sexual assaults carried out by perpetrators known to child survivors tend to result in increased psychological harm such as a sense of defilement (Berns), including in West African countries (Sodipo, Adedokun, Adejumo, & Oibamoyo, 2018). Putatively, female students assaulted as minors may be more likely to have assailants who are associated with an educational occupation, including teachers, staff, or older/adult students. When an adult in a position of trust and authority like a teacher is the rapist, the trauma and feeling of betrayal frequently is greater for a child survivor (Fromuth, Kelly, Brallier, Williams, & Benson, 2016; Koss, 2018; Mitchell & McGill, 2015).

This analysis tests the cases of 241 young women whose child rape status is ‘raped,’ disaggregated by their schooling tier and the risk ratios of the occupation of the male perpetrators at the time she was a minor. Likewise, this study also analyzes this ratio as a girl moves further up educational tiers (no schooling, primary, secondary, and tertiary/advanced). The dissertation survey asked the young women participants if the males with whom they had sex as minors were adults or peer youths (under 18 years old) at the time of the act, and secondly, if the man had parental consent. Lastly, the survey captured the males’ occupation at time of the sexual activity, categorizing their occupation as a binary variable: either ‘school-based’ (teacher, school staff, or adult student) or ‘non-school occupation’ (like farmer, vendor, businessman, police, etc.).

Table 5.3 Change in Rapist by Child’s Daily Environment

Environment

Assailant Occupation Outside of School In School Total

School-based 6 (0.24) 86 (0.40) 92 (0.38)

Non-school 19 (0.76) 130 (0.60) 149 (0.62)

Total 25 (100.0) 216 (100.0) 241(100.0)

Table 5.3 suggests that most assailants of these girls are men with occupations outside of the schooling environment, while approximately 38 percent work or study in classrooms. Rapists are about equally distributed, all of which seems to initially go against the second hypothesis. But examining the change in percentage odds among children’s frequent environments offers a compelling finding. Table 5.3 indicates that among 241 child rape survivors, the odds for a female student are that she is roughly twice as likely to have a teacher, school staff, or older student as her assailant than a non-educated peer. The sample of non-educated girls raped by a school-based assailant is small, which limits the generalizability of this finding. But it is notable that rape survivors who are frequently in schooling environments more often have assailants who also work

in schools. These school-based assailants also make up nearly a quarter of the non-educated victims’ attackers, indicating that teachers, education staff, and adult students make up a high proportion of rapists even outside of schools. This pattern of percentage frequency of school-based assailants among girls statutorily raped goes up with each tier population—from 24 percent among non-educated victims to 35 percent among primary school victims, and then to over 40 percent for secondary and even tertiary victims (Appendix 20.2). It should be shocking and appalling to any policy-maker that the rate of educational assailants is this high at all, when in truth, we should expect the percentage of school-based rapists to be the exact opposite—extremely low.

Finding comparable rates of rapist profiles in other African countries is problematic. It can be extremely difficult to establish teacher pedophile rates, often due to the lack in data quality based on low response rates, fear of retribution, and constructs of sexual assault. Qualitative research indicates that rape by teachers is an issue in many countries, like South Africa, Uganda, and Senegal, but statistics are not well-established. This is a global issue. A literature synthesis of rape rates of students by teachers in the US and the UK found large disparities and inaccuracies in quantitative findings. Yet one rigorous 2003 study by the American Association of University Women found that nearly 7 percent of US students had experienced educator sexual misconduct (physical contact) (US Department of Education, 2004). This dissertation study seems to have accomplished establishing a profile of school-based rapists for the first time in Liberia. Future statistical research including a more generalizable population sampling can improve on this initial finding. But this data may be vital to key stakeholders like the Liberian Ministry of Education in realizing the magnitude of the issue of rape perpetrated by adults in school occupations.

The qualitative interviews, such as statements by a female university student, nonprofit worker, CSO member, and GBV officer, offer supporting evidence of general

incidences/knowledge of teachers having sex with students behind the backs of parents, often employing coercion and grooming. Colloquially, the interviewees often refer to this as ‘seduction’ of students. The GBV officer discloses a 2018 case of a young student raped by a teacher who groomed the girl without her parents’ knowledge “[and] started having an affair with her.” In the quantitative survey, numerous young women participants went further to specify the exact occupation of the man/men who held school-based occupations at the time; the majority said these men were not always teachers or school staff but also adult students enrolled in primary or secondary school. Liberia, like many developing countries, allows late-entry into public and private schools, which permits primary and secondary classes to have a large age range amongst students (including adults even in their twenties). The key informant interviews give some insight into the problem of school rapes. A psychological clinician working in social welfare explains:

[I]t’s requires of all school authority immediately report of rape related cases to the nearest police station…The school authorities are trained and mandated to report the cases…[but the main issue is a] lack of willpower to persecute and the selective persecution which a case involves someone highly connected to the government.

There are issues with officials including school administrators ignoring or covering up cases of school violence. Additionally, the female university student says many young students are aware of rape in the classroom, but people in positions of authority did not take measures to stop the crimes. Moreover, there are multiple national reports of individual school staff members raping dozens of pupils within the same time period (Konuwah, 2019; Young), indicating potential serial rapists. And yet, these are not the only assailants whom pupils face.

There still remains the concern of the large percentage of men whose occupations fall outside of the schooling environment who may be committing rapes in or near school

environments (within the ecological micro or meso sphere). These perpetrators, like perpetrators in the United States, are often a part of close-knit community circles and families whose members may know each other through economic, social, or religious contacts, but mainly through family connections. Hence, it appears that more than 6 in 10 rapes among primary and secondary school girls may be committed in the home environment or in some intimate family or extended family situation. The girls often range in age (from 8-17). Even though they spend a large part of the day in child-centered environments, too many of them still face being victimized. They carry their trauma into the classroom, which can in turn negatively impede their ability to learn, health, and sense of safety.