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evidence against rapists. In Lesotho rape is considered as a capital offence<br />
for which the death penalty may be earned.<br />
Indeed some analysts on the contrary have compared rape to battery,<br />
which attracts a lower penalty. Davis (1984: 62) states point blank:<br />
‘Rape should be treated as a variety of ordinary (simple or aggravated)<br />
battery because that is what rape is.’ Davis (op cit., 71) in fact describes<br />
his typical rape scene as follows:<br />
In the typical rape, a man overpowers a weaker woman or just<br />
makes it clear that he will do so if she does not do what he<br />
wants. The woman quickly gives in to avoid the mess, pain, and<br />
danger of a useless fight against superior force. The victim becomes<br />
passive, putting distance between herself and her body<br />
much as a patient might while being examined for hemorrhoid<br />
[71]<br />
Talking of seriousness and how bad, the incidence and prevalence of<br />
sexual violence is another thing. It has not been easy to establish prevalence<br />
rates due to non-reportage. States manifest differences, as Moore<br />
et al. (2007) suggests. They found that 38.1% of Malawian girls reportedly<br />
were coerced at their first sexual experience; in Ghana, Burkina<br />
Faso and Uganda respectively, 29.9%, 14.9% and 23.4% women had<br />
coercive first sexual intercourse. This of course does not mean so many<br />
women had been raped, since coercion has a wider meaning that transcends<br />
violent sexual intercourse. Comment on the prevalence of rape<br />
in an Accra inner city Henry and Fayorsey (2002: ix) maintain that<br />
about a third of the girls in that study described their first sexual encounter<br />
as one involving force and/or deception by a boyfriend, or, as a<br />
rape by someone who was not a boyfriend.<br />
Offences involving sexual violence are serious issues in the Ghanaian<br />
legal code, for which a custodial sentence of up to twenty-five years<br />
may be imposed on the offender. In Ghana it is a first degree felony for<br />
which ‘... on conviction a term of imprisonment of not less than five<br />
years and not more than twenty-five years’ may be imposed, according<br />
to Act 29 of the Criminal Offences Act of 1960.<br />
Rape and related sexual offences may be common among some sectors<br />
of the population. Young girls seem to suffer more, and we may mention<br />
in this context young unemployed girls and school dropouts. The<br />
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