1Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Sardar Patel Medical College, Bikaner.
2Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Government Medical College, Kota.
3Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, National Institute of Medical sciences, Jaipur.
4(Oby & Gynec), CHC, Nokha.
*Corresponding author: Dr Rahul Jain, E-mail address: drrjain@hotmail.com, Anekanth Vihar, 78 Moti Magri Scheme, Udaipur, Rajasthan, 313001, INDIA.
Rape is a serious offence, causing tremendous physical, mental and emotional trauma to the victim. Attitudes to sexuality and the taboos associated with issues of sexual nature have limited our understanding of this most vital aspect of our humanity. Medical text, teaching, and research in the area of human sexuality and the genitalia have been severely lacking, especially those relating to female.
Of all forms of sexual assault the most heinous and that arousing the most passionate response is the sexual abuse of children. Burgess and Holmstrom (1974) first used the term ‘rape trauma syndrome’ to describe the psychological reactions experienced by victims of rape. Statistics show a persistent rise in sex assault cases with poor conviction rates. Victim in many cases, decide not to report these offences for fear of embarrassment a sense of deep shame and considering her future life. This knowledge, along with vast multitude of emotional sequel of rape and self perceived inferior legal status of involved females results in a high percentage of unreported cases. Medical examiner has only a corroborating role in establishing the allegation of rape.
Sex assault, Consent, Medical examination, injury, victim, accused
