Children and adolescents victimized by sexual abuse in the city of Rio de Janeiro: an appraisal of cases.

Physical and/or sexual abuse, negligence, and psychological abuse against children and adolescents, constitute a socially important syndrome, demanding preventive public policies and rules for its eradication. Sexual abuse, as a troublesome occurrence, or even its mere presumption, does not regularly undergo official notification. We have examined legal investigative registers at the Instituto Médico-Legal do Rio de Janeiro - Sede set up from January to March 2000, including women, children and adolescents, with medico-legal histories suggestive of sexual assault. From a sample of 1419 cases, we selected those involving vaginal coitus or other libidinous practices, with an upper age limit of 17 years, reducing our sample to 44 subjects. 84.09% of the assaults occurred between ages 0 and 14 years. In 62.36% of the studied cases there was no mention about perpetrators. Material for laboratory researches had not been collected in 84.09% of the cases. There is any lesions in 70.45% of the sample.