Alshekaili Muna, Al-Marzoqi Mohammed Ali, Al-Huseini Salim, Islam M Mazharul, Al-Sulaimani Fatima, Hassan Walid, Alkalbani Yahya, Al Breiki Mohamed, Al-Madhani Abdullah, Roy Nithila Mariam, Al-Zakwani Ibrahim, Ganesh Aishwarya, Al-Adawi Samir
Al Masarra Hospital, Ministry of Health, Wilayat Al Amerat, Muscat, Oman.
Former Public Prosecutor, Oman's Judicial Authority, Madinat Sultan Qaboos Street, Muscat, 113, Oman.
Heliyon. 2024 Nov 19;10(23):e40434. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40434. eCollection 2024 Dec 15.
To stay abreast of the best international practices, the Arab Gulf countries have ratified the United Nations which includes clauses on safeguarding the well-being of children against child abuse and neglect. The enactment of laws, policies, and facilities designed to protect the rights of the child has not yet been studied to determine whether it leads to appropriate legal dispositions against perpetrators of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Oman.
This study has been launched to address two interrelated objectives; (i) describe the characteristics of CSA victims and perpetrators and (ii) examine factors associated with medicolegal findings and judicial results for CSA complainants in Oman.
Data come from a retrospective survey that covered one year from January 2017 to December 2017. Data from participants who met the study criteria were drawn from statistics published by the Oman Public Prosecution. The study was designed to obtain sociodemographic characteristics of victims and perpetrators of CSA, the types of prevalent cases of CSA, whether CSA was the result of family or extrafamilial encounters, and the characteristics of medical findings and legal results.
During the designated period, 269 victims and 269 defendants were identified. Most of the victims were boys (55.8 %), and their ages ranged from 9 to 15 years (mean age 12 years). Among the perpetrators, all were men, with ages ranging between 20 and 40 years (mean age 28.3 years). The vast majority (96.7 %) of reported cases were of extrafamilial type. The identified types of CSA constituted inappropriate sexual behavior towards children (63 %), followed by sodomization (26 %) and vaginal coitus (7.1 %). The factors that explained the results in favour of the victims in the medicolegal findings included the female sex of the victim (AOR = 2.78, 95%CI = 1.01-7.87), and the ages of the victim between 8 and 12 years (AOR = 4.29, 95 % CI = 1.51-12.16). Among the cases that were tried in court, 76 % were convicted and sentenced to an average of 30 months in correctional facilities. Factors associated with the conviction of the perpetrator were victims' ages between 13 and 17 years (AOR = 3.45, 95 % CI = 1.22 to 9.79), the type of abuse was sodomization (AOR = 1.95, 95%CI = 1.08-6.78), and cases that included positive forensic results (AOR = 2.66, 95 % CI = 1.23 to 8.45).
To date, studies on medical-legal and judicial outcomes of CSA in developing countries have received little attention. The present sentinel study lays the foundation for future studies using the robust methodology required to further scrutinize the medicolegal findings and judicial results of CSA in similar regions of the Middle East. The present findings also suggest that the CSA trends in Oman tend to echo those reported from developed countries, but there are also culture-specific factors that shape reporting, as well as medico-legal and judicial outcomes.
为了跟上国际最佳实践，阿拉伯海湾国家批准了联合国相关公约，其中包括保护儿童福祉免受虐待和忽视的条款。旨在保护儿童权利的法律、政策和设施的颁布情况尚未得到研究，以确定其是否能导致阿曼对儿童性虐待（CSA）犯罪者作出适当的法律处置。
本研究旨在实现两个相互关联的目标；（i）描述CSA受害者和犯罪者的特征，（ii）研究与阿曼CSA投诉人的法医检查结果和司法结果相关的因素。
数据来自一项回顾性调查，涵盖2017年1月至2017年12月的一年时间。符合研究标准的参与者的数据取自阿曼公诉机关公布的统计数据。该研究旨在获取CSA受害者和犯罪者的社会人口学特征、CSA常见案件类型、CSA是家庭内还是家庭外接触导致的，以及法医检查结果和法律结果的特征。
在指定期间，共识别出269名受害者和269名被告。大多数受害者为男孩（55.8%），年龄在9至15岁之间（平均年龄12岁）。在犯罪者中，均为男性，年龄在20至40岁之间（平均年龄28.3岁）。绝大多数（96.7%）报告的案件为家庭外类型。识别出的CSA类型包括对儿童的不当性行为（63%），其次是鸡奸（26%）和阴道性交（7.1%）。在法医检查结果中有利于受害者的结果的相关因素包括受害者为女性（比值比[AOR]=2.78，95%置信区间[CI]=1.01 - 7.87），以及受害者年龄在8至12岁之间（AOR = 4.29，95% CI = 1.51 - 12.16）。在法庭审判的案件中，76%被定罪，平均被判处30个月监禁。与犯罪者被定罪相关的因素包括受害者年龄在13至17岁之间（AOR = 3.45，95% CI = 1.22至9.79），虐待类型为鸡奸（AOR = 1.95，95% CI = 1.08 - 6.78），以及包括法医检查结果呈阳性的案件（AOR = 2.66，95% CI = 1.23至8.45）。
迄今为止，发展中国家关于CSA的法医和司法结果的研究很少受到关注。本哨兵研究为未来的研究奠定了基础，这些研究将采用所需的稳健方法，以进一步审视中东类似地区CSA的法医检查结果和司法结果。目前的研究结果还表明，阿曼的CSA趋势往往与发达国家报告的趋势相似，但也有特定文化因素影响报告情况以及法医和司法结果。
