ABSTRACT
Background: Rape is amongst the most prevalent sexual assault against women in Pakistan.1i These bullets when fired damage the physical, psychological, social, and economical well being of the victim, culminating often into problems culminating in a myriad of social, psychological and medical problems
Objective: To analyze the various medico legal parameters and dimensions of alleged rape cases in metropolis of Karachi and present this analysis in relation to the demographic parameters of the alleged cases
Methods: A descriptive and cross sectional study on a total of 1210 cases of alleged sexual assault, that were reported from January 1, 2007 till December 31, 2011, at the three authorized medico legal centers of Karachi: Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Civil Hospital Karachi
Results: Amongst the total of 1210 cases, majority involved unmarried females [n=898; 74.21%], whereas married cases were 312[25.79%]. On an average 20% of the cases were reported per year [n=292], with peak incidence in 2011 when the percentage rose to 21.65%[n=262] and the minimum being at 17.27%[n=209] in year 2007. Most cases were reported 0-6th day post incident with the percentage being 35.70%.[n=432]. The cases in which examination was carried out between 1 week to 1 month after incident were 64.29%[n=778]. The negative cases came out to be 62.56%[n=757] and positive cases came out to be 37.43%[n=453], on the bases of clinical findings [i.e. tears local injuries] and laboratory investigations. Sexual assault is more common, in the age group of 15-20 years [n=586; 48.42%]
Conclusion: Rape as sexual assault is still a major concern in our region. Most of the cases reported were however not proved to be positive; Reasons being many, especially when the victim report their cases late or the nature of cases being such [as in rape after abduction] that relevant physical findings were rendered useless to provide evidence. There is a need to provide safeguards to such victims so that they may seek legal and medical attention sooner, and measures to provide social security to such sufferers so that their physical and mental health can be restored in due time
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To highlight the clinical criteria of persons who are accused of being under the intoxicating effect of alcohol brought to medicolegal officer by the police. METHODS: Included cases of alcohol intoxication reported to the medicolegal sections of three major government hospitals of Karachi i.e., Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Civil Hospital and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi, during the period January to December 1996. During one year of study, 338 persons were brought from police stations all over Karachi to the medicolegal sections of the above three hospitals. Out of these, 260 persons were disposed off by the medicolegal officers by use of their clinical judgement, 78 persons were suspected to be under the effect of alcohol intoxication and were referred to the chemical examiner where urine and blood analysis for alcohol was positive in 40 and negative in 38 cases. Only one fatal case of alcohol intoxication was reported to the chemical examiner and the viscera sent for examination were positive for alcohol. The incidence of the positive cases of alcohol intoxication on laboratory analysis was 11.8% while negative results were obtained in 11.2% cases, out of 23% cases referred to the chemical examiner, indicating that the bulk of cases i.e. 76.9% were disposed off on clinical criteria only which is a crude method of assessment of cases of acute alcohol intoxication