Knowledge, perception and experience of sexual entrapment among undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Introduction

Entrapment entails inducing persons not disposed to carry out an activity to carry out such activity or an act of deception to commit an act or crime. For sexual entrapment, an individual is lured to sexual act unwillingly or through deceit using several means and strategies¹. Sexual entrapment is also a form of sexual abuse resulting in sexual harassment, involving an individual requesting for sex after rendering a gesture without the victim being aware of the intended action².

The vulnerability of young persons, a lack of psychological maturity and the grooming process employed by the perpetrators renders them powerless to recognize the exploitative nature of the relationship and inability to give informed consent^2,3. Initially, perpetrators present themselves as empathetic and compassionate friends who offer help in difficult or straining situations^4,5. A young person that desperately needs help can easily be seduced by the perpetrator’s fraudulent promises, help, safety and attention⁶. Tactics resembling coercive and controlling techniques, such as; romancing and spending money; building dependence and/or trust by helping; isolation; abduction and/or drugging; isolation; coercion by financial or debt bondage; recruitment by gang; manipulation due to intellectual disability and normalizing sex, are also commonly used for sexual entrapment as observed in other types of exploitative relationship³.

The university environment provides many opportunities for sexual activity, and first-year students, many of whom are classified as young people, are the most vulnerable to sexual entrapment due to their lack of experience to make good, risk-aware decisions about sexual liaisons as they are new on campus, there are many persons that may offer to help them through many activities and needs, such as the screening process, admission procedures, registration process, feeding, assignments and accommodation, among other things⁷.

The impact and scope of sexual harassment that may be a result of sexual entrapment in colleges and universities surfaced in the early 1980s, leading to the creation of policies, procedures, extensive training programs and materials designed to identify and prevent sexual harassment⁸. Despite these efforts to minimize or eradicate sexual harassment on campuses, the frequency of complaints is increasing⁸. About two-third of university students have been sexually harassed and one-third of first year (41%) have been sexually entrapped and harassed by their peers⁹. Age, year in school, gender, sexual orientation and familiarity has been identified as some of the risk factors associated with sexual entrapment on university campuses^10–13.

Sexual entrapment, which may result in sexual harassment leading to unwanted sexual intercourse, threatens the victim’s sense of identity, thereby making it difficult for the individual to concentrate on studies, engage in promiscuous activities, depression, loss of trust, etc.¹⁴. Victims of sexual entrapment that results in rape may experience emotional, social and sexual problem as a result of being sexually assaulted. Some suffer severe injuries, contract sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or even get pregnant¹⁵.

Methods

Results

Discussion

The result indicating that a good number of the respondents had a good knowledge of sexual entrapment (58.5%), a figure comparable to that observed in a study by Menon et al.¹⁵. This could be attributed to the fact that sexual entrapment occurs on campus and most people would have come across or heard about someone that had experienced it, even though most of them were not familiar with the term. The level of knowledge also influenced their perception (p<0.05) as majority (81%) of respondents had a good general perception towards sexual entrapment, perceiving it as being serious, seeing it as a threat within the campus community and considering everyone on campus to be at risk. This is because most of them disagreed that not only females can be entrapped within the campus. This is also in line with the study by Menon, et al.¹⁵.

This level of perception could be attributed to the fact that people see sexual entrapment as rampant within the campus, as there are several means, strategies and situation that can be used for sexually entrapping students ranging from distribution of phone numbers of females among some male students, using food joints and canteens and the freedom of the opposite sexes to visit each other’s rooms within the halls, among others. This finding, however, contradicts the statement that Nigeria as a society does not perceive the concept of harassment as evil or as a violation of human rights, as it is assumed that individuals have the right to express and satisfy themselves, which implies that sexual entrapment is also considered a norm and not a big deal⁸.

According to Carina⁸, most Nigerian communities believe in male supremacy; thus, sexual entrapment may be perceived as an acceptable exercise of a male’s prerogative over a female’s sexuality. This is, however, not in line with the present study, as a majority (81.5%) disagreed with manliness being a privilege or advantage for sexually entrapping females. This finding can be explained by the fact that the target population has acquired some level of education that has influenced their perception, maybe as a result of exposure to different media and circumstances where different forms of sexuality have been explained. They may also have witnessed or experienced sexual entrapment. Their level of education may have also influenced their perception to the fact that both males and females should have equal rights.

Even with the high levels of good perception observed in this study, some students considered sexual entrapment within the campus community as a norm and an event that should be expected within the campus. This finding was supported by a study that revealed that students perceive entrapping other students sexually to be a way of having fun, and just one of school’s escapades, while some perceive that the victims also wanted sexual attention and are responsible for being entrapped¹⁸. This may be because the campus is seen as an environment that enables perpetration of such activities as a result of an absence of laws against it on campus and a lack of punitive measures within the campus. According to Okoro and Osawemen¹⁹, many of them believed that sexual harassment generally was a norm in society, as they see their society as being unsafe, hostile and intimidating, and may alter their own behaviour in an attempt to decrease their sense of vulnerability and were of the view that the prevalence of sexual harassment may have resulted from sexual entrapment in the societies.

The prevalence of sexual entrapment amongst 18% of the participants (n=76), affecting 42 males and 34 females indicates that sexual entrapment is common among undergraduates of the University of Ibadan, although this result cannot be directly compared to any study conducted on sexual entrapment as this area has not been researched on independently, but have been incorporated as a means of sexual harassment (i.e. sexual entrapment has not been researched on as a single entity but has been indirectly identified as a means of sexual harassment in studies). In this regard, the prevalence is lower than that of a study conducted among undergraduate students in Udupi district, which revealed that enticing persons through gifts and rendering of help and services (which is a form of sexual entrapment constituted 45.5% of the various means to sexual harassment among the students²⁰. Sexual entrapment was observed to be higher in males than females, although this was not statistically significant (p>0.05). This finding contradicts most of the studies on sexuality generally, as it is expected that females are usually more affected than males as they are seen as vulnerable and the fact that culture has placed females on the receiving end of sexual advances, as it is believed that males are meant to approach females⁹. However, this finding is similar to a study conducted among university students in Kenya, which revealed that more males were sexually harassed than females²⁰. The possible explanation for this finding could be attributed to the fact that times are changing and both males and females have sexual needs to meet, although the female perpetrators often use non-verbal cues like seduction after rendering help.

Asking for sex in return for help rendered especially emotional support was the mostly used tactics for sexually entrapping others on campus. This is supported by Reid et al.³ that propounded coercive and controlling techniques used for sexual entrapment where independence and trust is built first by the perpetrator. This could be explained by the fact that a majority of the victims are young people who are often faced with one emotional/psychological problem after the other, including pressures in their relationships and academic and family life, and may need someone to talk to or confide in.

This study observed that victims were mainly sexually entrapped by their friends, classmates, senior students, fellowship member, lecturers and non-academic staff, people outside the university environment, such as relatives, neighbors, etc. This finding conforms to that of a study that revealed perpetrators are mostly male friends, partners, teachers and peers²¹. The higher prevalence of sexual entrapment by friends can still be attributed to the fact that perpetrators try to gain the trust and love of their victims and become friends before opening up on their intentions³. It was observed that the prevalence decreased with seniority of class, as a majority experienced it during their first year. Among tertiary institution students, attention has been paid to the “red zone”, (i.e. when students are new on campus) during which students are at perceived risk of experiencing sexual assault or entrapment. Evidence has been established that the start of school for first year students is the most risky time for students to be prone to sexual assault and entrapment, as they are new on campus and may need help to adapt to the school environment, and most of them are young and naïve²². This finding is also in line with a study by Cranny, 2014¹².

The study revealed that most of the victims of sexual entrapment were entrapped by the opposite sex, while few males were entrapped by the same sex and one person was entrapped by both the same and opposite sex. Our finding, that the same-sex form of sexual entrapment is more prevalent among males, is comparable to a study where one-quarter of males admitted harassing male students, compared to one-tenth of female students’ harassed female students in a nationally representative survey of undergraduate college students¹⁸; i.e. males sexually entrap themselves more than females insinuating intended action of homosexuality on campus.

The findings of this study revealed that unwanted sexual intercourse with the perpetrator was the most frequently experienced negative outcome of being sexually entrapped, followed by acquiring injury while trying to escape from having sex with the perpetrator, rape, pregnancy after having sexual intercourse with the perpetrator and contracting STDs. This findings conforms to the report by Maharaj²³ highlighting the short/intermediate-term consequences of sexual entrapment in the form of unwanted touch, unwanted kiss, unwanted sexual intercourse, rape, etc.^24,25. It resulted in sexual intercourse more in males than females because some of the males may be overtaken by emotion and seize the opportunity to explore and have sexual intercourse, since they may feel they have nothing to lose. The females on the other side are more at risk for the resulting consequences, and hence will try to fight to avoid any form of sexual intercourse, thereby resulting to high prevalence of escape from having sex with the perpetrator in females than males.

In exploring the various ways in which victims of sexual entrapment tried to cope and deal with the experience and the various actions taken aftermath, 55.3% of victims adopted an effective coping mechanism, such as talking to someone about it, going to the health center for a medical checkup and reporting the incident to a school authority, while the rest adopted ineffective coping mechanisms, such as avoiding relationship with people, avoiding activities, attempting suicide, resulting to sexual risky practices, resulting to sexually entrapping others and harming the perpetrator. This finding relates to the modes of reactions established by Michele et al.²⁶, which include advocacy/help seeking, social coping (i.e. seeking support from friends), avoidance/denial (i.e. trying to ignore what happened) and confrontation/negotiation (i.e. trying to deal directly with the perpetrator).

Conclusion and recommendations

Sexual entrapment is common among undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan surveyed, and affects both male and female. Younger and first year students are most affected. Young people should mindful of the kind of friends they keep and parents should establish a good relationship and always educate their children starting from a younger age to be able to detect exploitative relationships.

Data availability