Volume : VI, Issue : XII, December - 2017

Medico–legal assessment of sexual assault victims in eastern region of Nepal.

Shivendra Jha, B N Yadav, Achala Thakur

Abstract :

 Background: Among all the crimes, sex related crimes are most barbarous and humiliating. The victim or family members of the victim remain silent due to the lack of support services or provision of protection for victims and witnesses, social stigma associated with rape and prevailing patriarchal attitudes, protracted court proceedings, inadequate investigations by the police, lacunae in the law, particularly the absence of rape shield provisions, etc. Moreover the rape victim has to undergo severe mental and social constraints.

Objective: To find out the medico–legal and socio–economic factors associated with victims and accused of sexual assault.

Methods: This retrospective study was carried out in forensic medicine department of B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences Dharan where 176 cases of sexual assault victims of a total of five year duration.

Result: Out of total 176 victims, 3 were male victims of sodomy while 173 were female victims. The mean age of was 16.07±11.11 years.  Most of the victims were young unmarried adult where accused were known or related to them. Majority of the cases were reported late with change of clothes which is responsible for compromised evidence. There were cases where assault took place multiple times and by more that one accused. Body injury was present in fewer cases while hymen was ruptured in most of the cases.

Conclusion: Even a child of age two years was found to be victim of sexual assault, which indicates no age is safe from sexual assault. Maximum victims presented after 72 hours of sexual assault with genital washing and change in cloth which are the common impediment to detect the assailants. So early reporting without washing genitalia and using modern medical technology like DNA diagnosis may help to detect the crime and criminals.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Shivendra Jha, B N Yadav, Achala Thakur, Medico–legal assessment of sexual assault victims in eastern region of Nepal., INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH : Volume-6 | Issue-12 | December-2017

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