Socio-Demographic Profile and Types of Child Sexual Abuse Cases Registered Under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in Raichur District Neelambari1, Bandenawaz2,* 1Intern, Navodaya Medical College, Raichur, Karnataka 2Professor and Head, Department of Forensic Medicine, Navodaya Medical College, Raichur, Karnataka *Corresponding Author : Dr. Bandenawaz, Professor and Head, Department of Forensic Medicine, Navodaya Medical College, Raichur, Karnataka, Phone : +91-98443-54914, E-mail: drbandenawaz@gmail.com
Online Published on 28 July, 2023. Abstract Introduction The increasing rates of child sexual abuse in India led to the enactment of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2012. Albeit enactment of POCSO Act 2012 with its strict punishments, current data has not shown any drastic reduction in the rates. A periodic and region to region study on Child sexual abuse in India have led to the publishing of such figures on public domain. This project aimed at studying the prevalence of child sexual abuse, the socio-demographic profile, and types of child sexual abuse under which the perpetrators were booked for, in Raichur district of Karnataka. Materials and Methods Present study was conducted in the department of Forensic Medicine at Navodaya Medical college, Raichur, Karnataka after obtaining institutional ethical committee clearance for a period of one year i.e., from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2019 by gathering data of cases booked under POCSO Act from 20 police stations coming under Raichur jurisdiction. Results and Conclusions In the prescribed study period, a total of 21 cases were registered under various sections of POCSO Act. Majority of the victims belonged to the age group between 11 years to 15 years amounting to 47.6% of the cases. Female children (90.5%) outnumbered male children (9.5%). All the 21 Accused were males (100%) of whom, most of them belonged to the age group of 18-35 years (95.2%). A majority of the accused persons were either family members other than parents or a friend or acquainted to the victim (57.15%). The frequent place of occurrence was in a secluded area (38.1%). Most of the cases were registered by the victim's family within 24 hours of incident (52.4%) and a majority of the accused were arrested within 24 hours of receiving complaint (47.6%). Maximum number of cases were booked under Penetrative sexual assault (47.6%). Top Keywords Child Sexual Abuse, CSA, POCSO Act, Socio-Demographic Profile, Rape, Statutory Rape, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Child Pornography. Top |