Sexual violence against females in Dar es Salaam : Magnitude associated factors and disclosure of events

Abstract

determine the magnitude of sexual violence, circumstances, associated factors, and disclosure of the events among females in Dar es Salaam. Design: A Community based Cross-sectional study. Setting: Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania. Population: Females aged 12 years or above. Methods: Eligible females were identified through house-to-house visits. Three female nurses conducted interviews using structured in terview questionnaire.

Results:

One thousand and four females completed their interviews.

Out of those, 198 (19.7%) were raped at least once in lifetime. One hundred and forty- two victims (71.7%) were raped at least once within the past 2 years. In 92.4% of rape events, the victims knew the perpetrator- the majority of whom were very close to them. Only 10.1% of the events were ever reported to the police. Events- committed by strangers were reported in 46.7% of cases compared to only 7.1% for those committed by the known perpetrators (p<O.OOOl). The disclosure of rape events to other people close to the victims was 43.8%, and 46.7% for events committed by the known and strangers respectively

----------- - -- --==-=-==----------------- ~ vu (p=O.832). Nevertheless, events committed by the sexual partners were neither disclosed to the police nor to anybody else. No significant association was found between rape and victim's educational level, marital status, religion or the one she lived with. Conclusions: Rape is a major public health problem in Dar es Salaam. The disclosure of the events to the police is very low and highly influenced by the victim- perpetrator relationship.