Demography of victims of sexual assault: A prospective study in south Odisha

Abstract

Sexual assault is a heinous form of physical coercion that involves use of violence by an individual upon another, mostly women and  children. It is a type of abuse that inflicts torture and consequently, physical, psychological and social trauma. This prospective study  was conducted on 206 victims of sexual offence who presented for examination to the Department of Forensic Medicine and  Toxicology in a Medical College and Hospital in South Odisha between October 2013 and September 2015. Natural sexual offences  constituted 56.80% of cases where 55.82% of cases were between the age group of 12 – 18 years and 82.04 % were Hindus. Most of  the cases (50.48%) occurred in rural settings and 36.89% were literate upto the higher secondary level. Most of the victims (36.89%)  were students, 84.47% were unmarried, 68.44% came from nuclear families, 55.83% of the victims were acquainted to the assailants  as a lover or boyfriend. Most of the victims (33.02%) were reported after more than 1 month of incidence and time elapsed between  incidence and medical examination for most victims (65.05%) was more than 72 hours.