INTRODUCTION

Rape is bad, but child rape is evil. There has been a lot of outcry in newspapers, radio broadcast, blogs, and other mass media about child rape in Nigeria. Many children including babies have been raped or even died as a result of rape. Some have been raped by their neighbours, family members and friends and strangers, while others have been raped by men who call themselves biological fathers of those children.
Child rape has caused a serious insecurity among female children in the country. Babies are no longer safe in their cods because their biological fathers rape them while changing their pampers. School children develop school phobia because their teachers defile them instead of protecting them. Errand children’s lives are at risk as some of them are lured or abducted into bushes where they are raped for ritual purposes, while pastors use God’s sanctuaries as love nest as they rape toddlers of their own churches.
All these cause a lot of havoc in Nigerian society as many children’s lives and education have been affected adversely. The researcher was moved by this heart-breaking situation to investigate on child rape in Nigeria and the implications on the education of the child.

Objectives of the Study

• To ascertain the level of parents awareness of child rape in
• To find out the causes of child rape in
• To identify the effects of child rape in

Research Questions

• How aware are parents of the prevalence of child rape in Nigeria?
• What are the causes of child rape in Nigeria?
• What are the effects of child rape in Nigeria?

Research Method

The study adopted descriptive survey. The population of the study was the entire young parents in Nigeria whose female children are between 0-12 years. This group was chosen to accommodate the age of children under study. Disproportionate random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. 8 out of 36 states in Nigeria were selected. In each state, 100 respondents comprising male and female were sampled for the study. The sample size was therefore 800 (100×8 = 800). Parents were used because the researcher found it difficult to get in touch with child rape victims. Annonymity and confidentially were granted to the respondents for security purposes.
Structured questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. The data collected were analyzed using frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviations and rank order. A criterion mean of 2.5 was used to accept or reject an item.