An Assessment of Knowledge of Rape Among Women in Jenta Mangoro Community of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria

This study investigated the knowledge of rape among women in Jenta Mangoro community of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State. The study used experimental design as its guide. The population of the study constituted of the 4000 women in the community who were between the ages of 15 and 49 years old. A sample of 120 participants was selected using convenient sampling technique. A self-structured designed questionnaire titled Women Knowledge of Rape Questionnaire (WOKR-Q) based on the 4-point rating scale was used. The face to face administration was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was validated by experts, while its reliability was determined using the Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded coefficient value of 0.89. Frequency table, mean scores, standard deviation and independent t-test were employed as methods of data analysis. The study used decision rule of 2.5 – 4.0 as good knowledge and 0 – 2.4 as poor knowledge for answering the research questions. The hypothesis was tested using t-test at significance level of 0.05. The findings revealed that the participants agreed that rape is a crime against humanity, but it has no definite definition in Nigeria. It was also found that mouth penetration of another person with penis without his or her consent is rape and anal penetration of another person with penis without his consent constitutes rape. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the pre-intervention and post-intervention mean scores of women knowledge of rape in the study Area. The study concluded that women had good knowledge of rape in Jenta Mangoro Community of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State and recommended among others that women should be constantly trained on what constitutes rape so as to increase their knowledge of rape as a way of curbing rape cases in communities.

Keywords: Assessment, Rape, Knowledge of Rape, Women,