Sexual abuse at schools in Cameroon: results of a survey-action program in Yaounde

• Published in: Médecine tropicale Vol. 62; no. 1; p. 58
• Main Author: Menick, D Mbassa
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: French
• Published: France 2002
• Subjects: Adolescent; Cameroon; Child; Child Abuse, Sexual - statistics & numerical data; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Male; Program Evaluation; Surveys and Questionnaires; Cameroon
• ISSN: 0025-682X

The purpose of this questionnaire-based study was to determine the incidence of sexual abuse in schools in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to assess the extent of teacher involvement in such acts and to provide children an opportunity to come forward with their experiences. The author hypothesized that the number of sexual abuse victims was increasing and that the most frequent abusers were teachers, school staff, and classmates. To check this hypothesis, a total of 1710 questionnaires were sent to 10 public and private secondary schools between January 4 and April 30, 1999. The response rate was 98.7%. A total of 269 students reported being sexual abused before the age of 16 for an overall incidence of 15.9%. There were 74 boys (27.5%) and 195 girls (72.5%) with a mean age 11.6 years (range 4 to 15 years) at the time of abuse. Sexual abuse involved rape in 38.7% of cases, fondling in 54.6% and pornographic scenes in 6.7%. Of the 274 sexual abusers identified, 86.5% were men and 13.5% were women. Sexual abuse took place within the family in 31.4% of cases and outside the family setting 68.6%. Sexual abuse occurred in a school setting in approximately 15% of cases and involved classmates in approximately 30%. The alleged extrafamilial abusers were teachers in 7.9% of cases and tutors in 7.6%. Survey data supports the working hypothesis of this study and warrants implementation of a program to prevent sexual abuse in schools.