**3. Results**

Between 2000 and 2015, we enrolled 400 girls and 26 boys under 18 years of age who were seen at one of the four hospitals following sexual abuse in the study. Mean age at onset was 10.81 years (SD 3.453) for boys, 13.46 years (SD 3.364) for girls and 13.30 years (SD 3.425) for total victims. The sample characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Forty-four percent of children were aged between 11 and 14 years, the majority of boys (46.2%) were younger than 10 years old, the majority of girls (44.5%) were between 11 and 14 years old. Of the victims, 243 (57.0%) were pupils, 26 (6.1%) preschool children and 157 (36.9%) were working or unemployed. In 278 cases (65.3%), the perpetrator was known to the victim, and a stranger was suspected in 148 cases (34.7%). In 79 of all cases (30.7% by boys and 17.7% by girls) a family member was the accused perpetrator. Perpetrators were most often familiar to the children (38.5% for boys and 47.3% for girls). A relatively low proportion of the intrafamilial abuses were committed by the victim's cousin or stepbrother (3–3 cases) for boys and the stepfather (24 cases) or father (12 cases) for girls. The distribution of the accompanying persons is presented in Table 1. In most cases, male victims were escorted to the hospital by their mother (9, 34.6%), and female victims by a police officer (200, 50.0%).

The characteristics of the CSA itself are presented in Table 2. Analysis of the time interval between the crime and the medical assessment showed a significant difference between the two genders. In case of male victims, only 2 victims (7.7%) had been able to ge<sup>t</sup> immediate emergency care, while 5 (19.2%) boys were seen at the hospital within 72 h and the majority—19 (73.1%)—were examined more than 72 h after the abuse. In case of female victims, the majority of the girls—152 (38.0%)—were seen more than 72 h after the abuse, but 98 (24.5%) cases had been able to receive immediate care, and 150 (37.5%) cases within 72 h. Furthermore, we found that in more than one-third (boys) and in one-fifth (girls) of cases, sexual abuse had occurred on multiple occasions. In the case of boys, CSA included sexual perversion (oral genital, genital touching and genital to genital contact) in 14 cases (53.8%) and anal

intercourse in 12 (46.2%) cases; in our sample, the boys had not reported physical abuse. In the case of girls, sexual abuse included coitus in 219 (54.8%), sexual perversion in 164 (41.0%), and anal abuse in 14 (3.5%) cases; physical injury was incurred in 15 cases. Physical examination of the children focused on two points: sign of injury and identification/collection of forensic evidence whether genital, anal or extragenital. Injury occurred in 3.5% of cases, but none of them required surgical treatment. The presence of sperm was confirmed in 118 cases (27.7%). In 12 (3.0%) cases, the pregnancy test was positive. On looking at the diurnal timing of individual cases, we found dissonant results between the genders: the boys were more likely abused in the afternoon, while the girls were mostly abused in the evening. Seasonal occurrence showed comparable results, with CSA occurred mostly during the summer, 10 cases (38.5%) for boys, 117 cases (29.3%) for girls, when children were on holiday from school. In the majority of the cases (31%), the location of the abuse was the victim's home (34.6% for boys and 30.85 for girls). Other locations included: at a familiar home (19.5%), public space (14.3%), in a forest/field (11%) and at a children's home (4%). During the study period, legal proceedings followed the CSA in 205 (48.1%) cases. The number of perpetrators who were sentenced was 41 (9.6%), 22 of them were found guilty on charges of rape, 4 on charges of sexual perversion and 15 on charges of illegal sexual intercourse.



**Table 2.** Characteristics of CSA cases.



**Table 2.** *Cont.*
