Victimology of alleged rape cases: A three year institution based cross sectional study

Aim of study: The demographics and characteristics of sexual assaultare changing. Hence, the aim of the study is to: a.       To describe victim, assault characteristics for women alleging rapeaccording to the type of penal sections egistered by the police. b.        To record the time between the last sexual assault and the examination, and to find out the reasons of delayed reporting of rape cases. c.        To provide descriptive data on the medico-legal findings. d.        And, to do a comparative review of the existing literatures. Material and method: This study is based on 244 numbers of examined rape victims reported to the Department of Forensic Medicine& Toxicology during the period from January 2010 up to December 2013. Victims were referred from investigating police authorities for evidentiary examination. Study included all cases registered under Section 376 Indian penal code (punishment for rape) by the police, with or without sections of other offences e.g. gang rape, rape followed by murder, abduction and rape, sexual intercourse made deceivingly or by an impostor; and rest all types of medico-legal cases were excluded. The prospective data regarding victim’s socio-demographic variables, detailed history of the alleged act, her relationship with the alleged accused person, date, time, place of occurrence of the crime,frequency of occurrence, reasons for delayed reporting, information regarding bathing, changing of clothing after the act, and use of any barrier methods by assailantswere collected fromthe rape victims, accompying family attendents, from the police, physical examination findings, laboratory investigation findings, and from any other available documents. Results: Most commonly alleged charge was ‘abduction and rape’ (46%), and least reported ones were gang rape, rape