Rape

• The pervasiveness of crime has repeatedly called into question the effectiveness and efficiency of the Nigeria Police Force.
• Many told us that they believed criminals used spiritual security for power and protection.
• Nigerians use spiritual security mechanisms in other areas of social life such as healthcare delivery, conflict resolution and household crime control.

Traditional belief systems

• Spiritual security is a traditional knowledge system that dates from precolonial times.
• The knowledge system of most African societies is generally predicated on a belief system that’s divided into the physical (visible and seen) and the spiritual (mysterious and unobservable).

The study

• We interviewed 35 police officers belonging to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
• We wanted to know to what extent the police were aware of criminals using spiritual security mechanisms.
• Most police officers acknowledged that the system of spiritual security mechanisms was part of a cultural heritage which many Africans employed.
• Participants said that their professional experiences in the field showed that criminals routinely used spiritual security mechanisms.
• They did so to strengthen and protect themselves when perpetrating crime such as armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and homicide.

Physical security and spiritual security

• The work experiences of police officers, however, generally demonstrated the importance of a knowledge system that recognises a connection between physical security and spiritual security.
• We recommend that Nigeria’s police force should explore any potential advantages that the system of spiritual security mechanisms might offer.

• Prigozhin, as leader of the notorious Wagner Group, had been the point man for Russia in Africa since Wagner first began operations on the continent in 2017.
• More than a single entity, the Wagner Group is an amalgamation of shell companies deploying paramilitary forces, disinformation and political interference in Ukraine, Syria and Africa.
• Its leaders have been sanctioned by 30 countries for the group’s destabilising activities.
• Prigozhin advanced Russian influence in Africa by propping up politically isolated and unpopular authoritarian leaders.

Maintaining Wagner without Prigozhin

• It is no surprise that Russia would want to keep the Wagner enterprise going.
• In Mali, Wagner is linked to more than 320 incidents of human rights abuses and hundreds of civilian deaths.
• Wagner has also been accused of driving away local communities where it has secured mining concessions, effectively annexing African territory.
• But this will change when it owns the repressive tactics Wagner has deployed.

Reassessments in Africa

• Russia’s reach in Africa may be exceeding its grasp, however.
• There is a growing awakening on the continent of how little Russia actually brings to Africa in terms of investment, trade, jobs creation or security.
• Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal that had enabled 33 million tonnes of grain to get from Ukraine to Africa and other parts of the world.
• This disregard, coupled with recognition that Russia offers relatively little to Africa, contributed to only 17 African heads of state attending the St. Petersburg summit.
• Russia’s lawlessness at home and abroad is bringing into sharp focus what his world order would look like.

• This included the unacceptable treatment of victim-survivors when giving evidence that was characteristic of rape trials.
• In 2023, on paper, the laws governing offence definitions, evidence rules and trial procedure are very different from those that operated in the 1970s.
• In sharing our main findings here, we want to acknowledge the complainants in the sexual offence trials examined in this report.

The study

We examined more than 30,000 pages of transcripts from 75 sexual offence trials finalised in the District Court of NSW between 2014 and 2020. Our primary aim was to assess the adequacy of existing arrangements for meeting the legitimate needs and expectations of complainants. Our findings can roughly be divided into two categories: aspects of trials that have changed for the better, and those that have not (yet) been reformed.

Improvements

• We found that procedural reforms designed to improve complainant experience in sexual offence trials were generally operating as intended.
• This included arrangements such as allowing complainants to give evidence via CCTV from a remote location.
• Read more:
  Four in ten Australians think women lie about being victims of sexual assault

Trial features that persist

• Importantly, this wasn’t just a result of how defence lawyers cross-examined the complainant – the prosecution case was also often built on the foundation of one or more “real rape” attributes.
• The defence often played the other side of the “real rape” coin, highlighting the absence of features traditionally associated with a “genuine” allegation.
• These included distressing matters such as the complainant’s history of mental illness, substance use, criminal convictions or having had children removed from their care.

Further reforms

Much has changed in terms of how complainants are questioned in sexual offence trials, but there is more still to do. Our report for the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research identified a number of further reforms that warrant consideration. These include:
These measures could contribute to the long overdue removal from sexual offence trials of rape myths and stereotypes and unfair scrutiny of complainants. Julia Quilter receives funding from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and the Australian Research Council .

• Ten years after a federal law required colleges and universities to offer sexual assault prevention programming to students, only about half of them are doing it.
• Without a national database containing standardized measures of campus sexual assault over time, it is difficult to determine whether campus sexual assault has decreased since this prevention programming requirement went into effect.

Scope and consequences of campus sexual assault

A large-scale 2019 campus climate survey of students across 33 U.S. campuses indicated that 1 in 5 women experienced some form of sexual assault after entering college. Both women and nonbinary students, those whose gender may not align with their sex assigned at birth, were four times as likely to experience sexual assault as men.

College students who are sexually assaulted face numerous consequences

College students who are sexually assaulted are at risk of experiencing numerous adverse outcomes, including poor academic performance, post-traumatic stress disorder, repeated sexual assault and suicidal thoughts. Considering these harmful outcomes, effective sexual assault prevention programs have the potential to protect college students from a range of problems.

The effects of campus sexual assault prevention programs

• As researchers who study sexual violence, we examined prevention programs and their effects on campus sexual assault.
• Our research team analyzed data from 80 studies evaluating campus sexual assault prevention programs in the U.S.
• We found that programs have a more pronounced effect on students’ attitudes and knowledge about sexual assault than on the prevention of sexual assault.

Violence prevention programs have room for improvement

• Violence prevention programs often target students’ attitudes and knowledge with the intent of decreasing violence.
• Yet students who participated in prevention programs had only a slightly lower rate of sexual victimization than students who did not participate.
• Our findings indicate that campus sexual assault prevention programs lead to only a small reduction in sexual assault.

An ecological approach to campus sexual assault prevention

• Students at colleges and universities with cultures that tolerate sexual violence are at risk for perpetrating sexual assault.
• Most research on campus sexual assault prevention addresses factors that lie at the individual level, such as by targeting individual students’ drinking behavior.
• In our search of available research evaluating campus sexual assault prevention programs, we found very few programs targeting the community or societal level.