Teenage Street Hawking and Vulnerability to Sexual Abuse in Nigeria: The Plight of Girl Hawkers

Teenage Street Hawking and Vulnerability to Sexual Abuse in Nigeria: The Plight of Girl Hawkers | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Teenage Street Hawking and Vulnerability to Sexual Abuse in Nigeria: The Plight of Girl Hawkers Ismail Ayatullah Nasirudeen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7216267/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Street hawking, a practice deeply rooted in traditional African societies, has undergone a major transformation over time. It now predominantly involves teenagers, exposing them to a variety of hazards that can have profound and lasting impacts on their lives. The risks are particularly heightened for female teenage hawkers compared to their male counterparts. This study delves into the vulnerability of girl hawkers to sexual abuse. The study is underpinned by a combination of two theoretical frameworks: social disorganization and routine activities theory. A qualitative design was adopted to gain a deeper understanding of the issue. The study was conducted in four major hawking areas in Lagos State, with a total of 25 participants selected through purposive and convenient sampling methods. The participants comprised 20 adults and five police officers, providing a diverse range of perspectives into understanding the plight of girl hawkers with respect to sexual abuse. Through content analysis, it was revealed that girl hawkers are not only sexually abused, but also kidnapped, killed, and used for ritual purposes. Despite the severity of these situations, they are seldom reported to the authorities. Considering the findings, the study proposes the following policy-based recommendations: the banning of hawking by teenagers, the enforcement of strict penalties for non-compliance, implementing stringent supervision measures for teenagers, providing child support, promoting closer parent-child relationships, encouraging the report of sexual abuse cases, and the imposition of deterrent punishments on sexual offenders to prevent future occurrences. Criminology Sociology Social Work Social Policy Teenager Girl hawker Street hawking Sexual abuse Vulnerability Lagos State Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7216267","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":490992988,"identity":"74de7f85-25d2-4321-9ecb-a14eef7d4c73","order_by":0,"name":"Ismail Ayatullah Nasirudeen","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2806-7816","institution":"University of Ilorin","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ismail","middleName":"Ayatullah","lastName":"Nasirudeen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-25 17:06:40","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7216267/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7216267/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87687101,"identity":"f99a0a66-f3fb-44d3-bbe8-ca1ca5b32c53","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-28 03:03:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":27815446,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TeenageStreethawking1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7216267/v1_covered_5df982d6-131a-4cfc-8442-98c4814d56db.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTeenage Street Hawking and Vulnerability to Sexual Abuse in Nigeria: The Plight of Girl Hawkers\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"University of Ilorin","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Teenager, Girl hawker, Street hawking, Sexual abuse, Vulnerability, Lagos State","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7216267/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7216267/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStreet hawking, a practice deeply rooted in traditional African societies, has undergone a major transformation over time. It now predominantly involves teenagers, exposing them to a variety of hazards that can have profound and lasting impacts on their lives. The risks are particularly heightened for female teenage hawkers compared to their male counterparts. This study delves into the vulnerability of girl hawkers to sexual abuse. The study is underpinned by a combination of two theoretical frameworks: social disorganization and routine activities theory. A qualitative design was adopted to gain a deeper understanding of the issue. The study was conducted in four major hawking areas in Lagos State, with a total of 25 participants selected through purposive and convenient sampling methods. The participants comprised 20 adults and five police officers, providing a diverse range of perspectives into understanding the plight of girl hawkers with respect to sexual abuse. 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