Peer-reviewed article
Violence Against Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review of Literature on the Victim–Perpetrator Relationship
Francis H. Barchi, Millan A. AbiNader ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5This is a scoping review that looked at research from 2013 to 2023 on violence against children in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing specifically on who commits the violence and their relationship to the child victim. The review found 42 studies that fit its criteria, many of which used the same underlying data sources like national surveys. It found that caregivers and family members were the most commonly identified perpetrators, followed by intimate partners, peers, and teachers. The review concludes that most research focuses on victims rather than perpetrators, meaning there is less evidence to guide programs aimed at stopping people from committing violence in the first place.
Key points
- 42 studies met eligibility criteria, published between January 2013 and June 2023
- 18 of the 42 studies shared primary data sources with each other, most often Violence Against Children Surveys, the Uganda Good Schools Project, and the National Child Homicide Study
- Caregivers/family members were the most common perpetrator category, followed by intimate partners, peers, teachers/school staff, and strangers
- Schools were the most common research setting
- Inconsistent definitions and classifications of age, victim, perpetrator, and violence type make it hard to form a complete picture of victim-perpetrator relationships
Limitations
The review only covers peer-reviewed literature from 2013-2023 and notes that inconsistent terminology across studies limits comparability; it does not evaluate any specific intervention.
Abstract
Violence against children affects children in every region, nation, and community in the world. Despite a significant body of literature about the victims of such violence, there has been little empirical research, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, focused on perpetrators, their relationship to victims, and interventions that might alter their behavior. This scoping review sought to identify and summarize the scholarly literature on perpetrators of violence against children in Sub-Saharan Africa and their relationship with victims. Using a keyword search of academic databases, we included peer-reviewed studies published from January 2013 to June 2023 that focused on physical, sexual, or emotional violence against children in Sub-Saharan Africa and included prevalence data about victim–perpetrator relationships. Eighteen of the 42 studies that met eligibility criteria shared one or more primary data sources with other studies included in this review, most frequently using data from Violence Against Children Surveys (10), the Uganda Good Schools Project (7), and the National Child Homicide Study (3). The most common classifications of perpetrators, in order of frequency, were caregivers/family members, intimate partners, peers, teachers/school staff and strangers, and the most common settings in which research took place were schools. Wide variability in the taxonomies used to define and report frequencies for age, victim, perpetrator, and type of violence obscures our ability to form a complete picture of victim–perpetrator relationships. Research emphasis on victims of violence may lead to missed opportunities to disrupt the perpetration of violence against children through interventions that specifically target its source.