Survivor-Accused Dynamics in Alleged Sexual Assault Cases: A Demographic Analysis

Abstract

Sexual assault is a type of gender-based violence. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender-based violence (GBV) as any harmful act that is committed against a person's will and is based on gender roles and power differences between males and females. Role of a health care provider is very crucial in the sense of Identifying, documenting and reporting such instances. This
prospective observational study was carried out in the department of Forensic medicine and toxicology of a Tertiary care center in a metropolitan city of Mumbai from January 2016 to June 2017.The main aim was to observe the demographic and relational dynamics between survivors and accused individuals in alleged sexual assault cases brought for examination. All cases that fulfilled
the inclusion criteria during the study period are considered for the study, which included 160 cases. In the study 93% of survivors were females and in that 73.25% were under the age of 18 years. Majority were students, graduates of Secondary School, from urban background and unmarried. An attempt to understand survivor-accused dynamics revealed the majority of accused were known to
the survivors (31.25%), and a single assailant is involved (96.88%). Other contextual findings were obtained which provided more insight into the circumstances of assaults.