AN ASSESSMENT OF CHILD DEFILEMENT AND SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTION

ABSTRACT

The study examined the impact of child defilement and social work intervention in Egor Local Government Area, Edo State. The objective of the study was to examine the impact of child defilement in Egor Local Government Area; to investigate the causes of child defilement in Egor Local Government Area.; to know the societal responses to child defilement in Egor Local Government Area; to assess the roles of social workers in the issues of Child defilement and to find out possible ways child defilement be curbed. The cross sectional research design was adopted for this study. Three hundred and eighty one (384) copies of questionnaire were distributed to 384 respondents in Egor Local Government Area. Data collected were analyzed using frequency count, percentages and mean, with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0. The empirical result revealed child defilement often leads to poor childhood experiences and often leads low self-esteem and that the persistent failure to meet a child’s physical and/or psychological needs makes children vulnerable to defilement and that social workers have roles to play in the issues of child defilement. The study recommends that strict laws should be enforced to deal with abusers in the society and that Parents should train up their children and always be on guard for their children not to fall victims. The study also recommends that Nigerian courts should live up to their responsibility and sentence those found guilty of sexual defilement of children to life imprisonment as it will serve as deterrent to others no matter the status of the offender.