Sexual violence against children and vulnerability

Luciana C Trindade, Silvana M G M Linhares, Jorge Vanrell, Danilo Godoy, José C A Martins, Stela M A N Barbas

Objective To analyze the demographic and epidemiological profile of children and adolescents victims of sexual violence treated in a Unit of Forensic Medicine and the relationship between victims and perpetrators. Methods A descriptive study, with data collection from information gathered from sex abuse reports performed in 2009 on victims of sexual violence aged less than 18 years. The data collection tool was a form filled out with demographic information about the victim - gender and age - and information regarding the sexual violence -, location of the occurrence, time elapsed between abuse and expert report, complaints reported, sexological examination findings, description of lesions outside the genital region, and aggressor's relationship to victim. Results In 2009, 421 individuals victim of sexual violence were assisted. Of those, 379 (90%) were younger than 18 years, and 66 cases were excluded from these reports. Most were female (81.2%). The most affected age group was 10 to 13 years old (36.7%), followed by 5 to 9 year-olds (30.7%). In most cases (86.3%), there were family or friendship ties between victims and perpetrators, being most frequently accused an acquaintance or friend of the family (42.3%), followed by the stepfather (16.6%) and the father (10.9%). Conclusion The results are similar to other studies conducted in the country. This work aims at filling a gap caused by the lack of research on this topic in the State, hoping to collaborate to improve public policies against child sexual abuse.