Comparison of patterns of sexual assault among male victims during and after civil strife in Sri Lanka

Abstract

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Introduction: After the defeat of terrorism in May 2009, a significant change in the pattern of crime has been observed in Sri Lanka. Further, no in-depth studies have been conducted on male victims of sexual assault. This study was conducted to describe the nature of injuries and characteristics of male victims of sexual assaults during civil strife and compare those with after civil strife. Methods: A cross-sectional study on male victims of sexual assault was conducted at selected tertiary care hospitals in Sri Lanka. All Medico-legal examination forms (MLEFs) of 6 consented forensic medical practitioners covering 10 year period from May-2004 to May-2014 were studied. Results: Of all the MLEFs (31,210), 102 (0.3%) were male victims of sexual assault. Ages ranged from 03 to 36 years and 68% were 10-19 years of age. Ninety four percent had no injuries. Thirty five percent occurred during civil strife and 65% after it. The circumstances such as time, place, perpetrator and number of incidents had significant difference with the period of occurrence (p<0.05). After civil strife, the referrals to the psychiatrist showed a significant difference (p<0.05). Conclusions: During civil strife, sexual assaults occurred at daytime, outside home, by non-relatives and multiple times. After civil strife, sexual assaults occurred during night, at home, by relatives and one episode. There was no significant difference in the nature of sexual acts. Significant increase in male sexual assaults at home by relatives after civil strife needs further investigations in order to develop evidence based interventions.