الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 134 |  |  |
| | | from | 134 | | |
Abstract
Child abuse is a serious global problem occurring in all socio-economic groups. Child abuse can be in the form of physical, sexual, emotional or just neglect in providing for the child’s needs. This can leave the child with serious, long-lasting psychological or physical damage that can extend into adulthood or even cause death. It is still underestimated and unreported due to poor documented data Aim of the study was detection and medico-legal description of different child abuse cases referred to Sohag Medico-Legal Department of the ministry of justice for forensic examination or autopsy retrospectively and prospectively. Analysis of socio-demographic data, pattern of injuries, manner of death and the perpetrator characters. Materials & Methods a descriptive cross sectional study including: living and died cases of child abuse (all victims younger than 18 years) that were referred for examination or autopsy at Sohag Medico-Legal department of the Ministry of Justice, retrospective part (1st of Jan, 2011-31 of December, 2011) from Archive reports & a prospective part (1st of Jan, 2017 - 31 of December, 2017) from reports during forensic autopsy or external examination of living cases Results The retrospective part of the study reveals 112 child abuse cases were referred to Sohag Medico-Legal Department of the Ministry of Justice (82 living cases & 30 dead cases), Mean ±SD for the first age decade was 5.70±3.09 years while that for the second age decade was 15.75±3.00 years, Male to female ratio was 1:4. Most cases came from rural areas of Sohag with less than one fourth from urban areasConcerning the type of child abuse; Physical abuse predominated in more than one half of the cases, neglect was in about one third of the cases, sexual abuse in one seventh of the cases. Autopsy of the dead cases reveals; hemorrhagic shock due to physical injury is the main cause of death followed by brain injury then asphyxia and poisoning, homicidal manner of death represent near three fourths and about one fourth was accidental with little percent of suicidal casesForensic examination of physical abuse cases reveals firearm injuries was the main pattern followed by blunt and sharp trauma. Concerning squealea of physical child abuse; physical disability was present in more than one fourth of the cases. No sufficient data could be collected about the Perpetrator in about half of the cases, while the most presented forms were the uncle, friend and neighbors of the victim and the motivation of such violence was interpersonal violence in more than one third of the cases followed by the robbery, sodomy and poverty. The prospective part of the study reveals 91 child abuse cases were referred to Sohag Medico-Legal Department of the Ministry of Justice (51 living cases &40 dead cases), Mean ±SD for the first age decade was 5.80±3.17 years while that for the second age decade was 15.71±2.9 years, Male to female ratio was 1:3. Most cases came from rural areas of Sohag Governorate with less than one fourth from urban areas Concerning the type of child abuse; Physical abuse was in more than one third of the cases, neglect and sexual abuse are of equal percent. Autopsy of the dead cases reveals; hemorrhagic shock due to physical injury is the main cause of death followed by asphyxia then and poisoning and lastly brain injury, homicidal manner of death represents more than three fifths and about one fifth was accidental with some suicidal cases. Forensic examination of physical abuse cases reveals was blunt trauma the main type of trauma followed by firearm injuries and sharp trauma. Concerning squealea of physical child abuse; physical disability was present in about one fifth of the cases. No sufficient data could be collected about the Perpetrator in about half of the cases, while the most presented forms were the uncle, friend and neighbors of the victim and the motivation of such violence was interpersonal violence in more than one third of the cases followed by the robbery and sodomy.