Socio-demographic determinants of victims of sexual assault in Mumbai

Abstract

There has been a drastic increase in the reporting of sexual assault cases in India after the implementation of the Criminal law  amendment act, 2013. Various studies on such critical issues have been conducted in past in India. Unfortunately, none of the existing  researches focuses on bringing reforms in the prevailing rape law by reconsidering the age of statutory rape. This study was  conducted from 2014 to 2016 on 220 victims of sexual assault to identify sociodemographic characteristics and to highlight the issue  of statutory rape in India. 90% of victims of sexual assault were females. The mean age of victims was 16.75 years. 68.2% of victims  were from the lower middle class. The majority of sexual assault cases took place in the assailant's house. The assailant was known to  the victim in 88.6% of cases and was mostly boyfriend (36.4%). Victims under 12 years of age are at a comparatively higher risk of  being sexually assaulted by an unknown person. The age of consent for sexual intercourse in India is 18 years while worldwide  consensus points to 16 years. With the increase in usage of the internet and social networking sites, young children are having early  exposure to sex and sexual content existing on the web. In such a scenario, young children caught in the act would go to jail as it  would amount to technical rape as consent would be of no value. This study will create community awareness about the extent of the  problem and help the policymakers to make necessary amendments to the existing rape law.