An unintended consequence of international education policy is the misunderstanding of the relation between child sexual abuse and the schooling of girls. Development research indicates that education is associated with decreased rates of early childhood marriage. Yet education also exposes female pupils to sexual violence within schools. International agencies and national governments are often unaware that the very policy of putting young girls in the classroom may also expose them to various forms of child sexual abuse. The relation between schooling and sexual violence has not been well established in development research. The field research reported in this dissertation addresses this deficiency in the literature by examining the joint effects of education and the safety of the school environment on female child sexual abuse. Applying a mixed-methods approach, the study analyses results of a 2018 field-study using a stratified-cluster sample of 715 young Liberian women and 493 of their parents. A key finding of the study is the unintended consequence that sending girls to school is linked to nearly 35 percent of students being statutorily raped. While most child rape offenders work outside of the educational setting, approximately 38 percent of abuse cases involve teachers, staff, and adult students. The analysis further examines how the relation between education and child sexual abuse is affected by factors including the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of parents. Conclusively, the combination of higher educational achievement (e.g. university, advanced polytechnic schools) and safer learning environments significantly reduces abuse risks. For instance, a girl’s odds of being raped are nearly three times less if she has tertiary education versus primary schooling (phi=0.24, p=0.01). Additionally, a small increase in school safety level reduces her risk of being raped by about 10 percent (p=0.001). Statistical findings were interpreted in light of sixteen key informant interviews, which helped explore causal mechanisms and potential policy solutions. The ethical and policy-relevant ramifications of this research expose a fatal remedy: Policymakers are urging girls to enter the classroom at higher rates, yet without fully understanding how to ensure their protection and facilitate their human agency
