Medicosocial & medicolegal aspects of sexual offences: The current scenario in an urban location of Western India

Sexual harassment of females is a dark reality that routinely inflicts on daily lives but in a majority of cases it goes unnoticed and unreported on account of the innocence of the victim, stigma attached to the act and callousness and insensitivity of the law enforcement agencies. A prospective study was done on 65 cases of females brought for estimation of age at New Civil Hospital, Surat, Gujarat via medical examination and then analyzed statistically with EPI 6 software. These cases were brought as part of investigation of alleged victims of abduction/kidnapping and sexual assault. On analysis of these cases, a surprising trend was observed, reflecting the active participation of subjects in elopement and involvement with consent in illicit sexual relationships, which they later deny on being caught. This is quite contrary to the usual belief of a predominantly conservative Indian society that the male is almost always the culprit in such offences. Most of these subjects were in age group where they are considered as a ‘child’. An attempt has been made here to highlight this emerging trend.