Study of mechanisms and factors related to sexual abuse in female children and adolescents

The objective was to study the frequency of sexual abuse in children and adolescents and its related factors. The method used in the study was a retrospective analysis of 617 cases of sexual abuse assisted between July 1994 and August 1999 at the Womens Health Reference Center divided into two groups: 71 children (age or = 10 and < 20 years). The analyzed variables were: sexual crime; embarrassment; presumption of violence; characteristics and number of abusers; the victims situation at the moment of the crime; and occurrence of physical traumas. Epi Info 6 software was utilized to gather data and the results were analyzed by the chi-square test. Significant statistic results were found. 90.8% of the adolescents were victims of rape and 46.5% of the children suffered sexual assault. The presupposed violence (PV) was more frequent in the group of children (63.4%) and a serious threat in the group of adolescents (63.2%). Innocentia consilli was exclusivePV among 100% of children and 59.5% of adolescents. 84.5% of children were molested by identifiable abusers most frequently family members. Perpetrators were unknown in 72.3% of the cases of adolescent abuse. 42.3% of sexual abuse of children occurred in their homes and 28.2% at the abusers. Adolescents were approached during daily activities (34.8%) and on their way to work or school (28.4%). Most patients did not have genital or extragenital trauma. Children suffered sexual assault perpetrated by a known abuser through presupposed violence in private places. Adolescents were raped by unknown individuals under serious threat in nondomestic places. (authors)