Biopsychosocial Health Education Dynamics of Rape Perpetration: A Rape Prevention Dynamics

Rape perpetration is a public health concern and most cases of rape are less reported possibly because of shame, fear of attack or poorly enforced legal action. Series of attempts to curb and reduce the cases of rape especially in Nigeria involved some measures of incarceration and social supports. Traditional methods of treating individual with healthcare needs that foster wellbeing was basically a physician biomedical approach. Overtime, health was viewed as a holistic concept incorporating not only biological domain and causes of illness but also other dimensions including psychological and social. Therefore, a more comprehensive and holistic approach incorporating the biological, psychological and social determinants of individual’s health and wellbeing evolved. Such an approach is more encompassing in health education and disease prevention. Hence, the biopsychosocial health education dynamics of rape perpetration becomes a veritable tool for explaining the drives behind rape perpetration of sexually active males. Therefore, a number of theories including the biological theory, Rape Theory and the Social Learning Theory were used to explain the biological, psychological and social health education dynamics of rape perpetration. Finally, the Psychoanalytic Theory of Sigmund Freud and Ellis’s Biosocial Theory were used to provide explanations for the biopsychosocial health education dynamics of rape perpetration with particular focus on the dynamics of prevention of the behaviour.