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Abstract
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Child maltreatment is a serious global problem in all socio-economic groups. This can lead to serious, long-lasting physical or \ and psychological damage that extend to adulthood. Aim of work: Evaluation of different medico-legal aspects of confirmed child maltreatment cases at Sohag's Medico-legal department of the Ministry of Justice; retrospectively and a prospectively with demographic description and comparative analysis between the 2 parts of the study.
METHODS: the study included confirmed cases child maltreatment at Sohag's Medico-legal department of the Ministry of Justice, retrospectively at the year 2011 (the year of 25th Egyptian Revolution) data collected from the reported files and prospectively at the year 2017 and data was collected during examination or autopsy of the confirmed analysis cases with of the perpetrators relation to the victims.
RESULTS: Retrospective part revealed 112 cases (81 living & 31 dead), male to female was 4:1. Physical maltreatment predominated (46.4%), followed by combined pattern (34.8%) then sexual abuse (14.3%). Autopsy of dead cases revealed hemorrhagic shock was the main cause of death (46.7%) followed by brain injury (23.3%), prospective analysis revealed 91 cases (51 living& 40 dead), male to female ratio was 3:1. Physical abuse predominant (45.1%) followed by equal percent of neglect and sexual abuse (25.3%). Autopsy revealed hemorrhage and asphyxia were the main causes of deaths (47.5 and 37.5% respectively). Extra-familial perpetrators (friend , neighbors , driver, teacher ) were the most reported ones in retrospective and prospective analysis with no sufficient data could be collected in about one third of the cases during 2011 and in more than one fourth of the cases during 2017 Conclusion: Forensic examination of child maltreatment cases at Sohag Governorate as one of the Upper Egypt governorates provided evidence on the magnitude of the problem in Upper Egypt. Comparison of the medico-legal aspects between the retrospective part in the revolution period and the prospective part of post revolution period revealed similar results of most studied aspects with little difference have been observed in the child maltreatment pattern that might be related to post revolution's social circumstances in Egypt.
Language: en |