Profile of perpetrators of alleged sexual assault

Abstract

Sexual assaults are an important global health problem threatening people of all age groups. There are no reported studies regarding the profile of perpetrators of alleged sexual assault in this part of the country. Thus, the present cross sectional study was conducted at the M. S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore, between January 2013 and December 2015 to analyze the age distribution of perpetrators of alleged sexual assault, correlation between the victim's version, victim's parent's version and the perpetrators version of the incident, relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Descriptive statistics for qualitative type of data were summarized using frequency and percentage. A total of 87 perpetrators were brought for medical examination alleged to have been involved in 82 sexual assault incidents. All of them were males. Majority of them were in the age group of 18–24 years (40%). In most of the incidents a single perpetrator was alleged to have involved in the sexual assault (N=79) constituting 96.3% of incidents. In the majority of the cases, perpetrators were either victim's friends (N=34, 39%) or acquaintances (N=31, 35.6%). There was allegation of rape in 67 cases, molestation in 15 cases and sodomy in 5 cases. In 55 incidents, assailant's claimed it to be consensual and in 21 cases to be a false allegation. Though the victim had consensual sexual intercourse in many cases, she agreed to that only in 38 cases. Most of the incidents took place in perpetrator's home (20 cases).