Citation

Alsaif DM, Almadani OM, Almoghannam SA, Al-Farayedhi MA, Kharoshah MA. Egypt. J. Forensic Sci. 2018; 8(1): e27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Forensic Medicine Authority of Egypt, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1186/s41935-018-0058-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Child sexual abuse, being most of the time a hidden crime that is kept lifelong undisclosed, was found to have strong influence on the victim. Unless a hard evidence (physical evidence, eyewitness, perpetrator confession) was present, decision on the case will depend solely on the child's account. In spite of efforts to get accurate information, children tend to mix events they have experienced with those seen on TV, heard in a story or even introduced by others while questioning about the event. Source monitoring error is the error in tagging information to its source and is a problem faced when interviewing very young children and when repeatedly rehearsing a false event. In Saudi Arabia, awareness programs were initiated and were distributed widely to educate families about consequences of abuse and the available facilities to seek if needed. These programs took part in social campaigns at malls, schools and media. Parents became more aware of the problem and concerned parents even took part in educating their children about self protection. Knowing that formal sexual health education is deficient in Saudi Arabia and in other Arab countries can put such programs in challenge.

Language: en