Laboratory Findings in Sexual Assault Cases: A Three-Year Retrospective Study from Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Résumé fourni par la source

Objective: To assess trends and laboratory findings in sexual assault cases and determine their proportion to the overall forensic workload.Methods:This was a retrospective descriptive study that was carried out at the Forensic Science Laboratory at Mardan, KPK, Pakistan, between January 2023 and December 2025. A total of 904 forensic science laboratory cases were identified. Cases with incomplete records or pending reports (n= 105) were excluded. Cases involving alleged sexual assault were identified through medico-legal referral records and laboratory registration data, while seminal-fluid detection was used for forensic examination. The data sheets were prepared in Excel and analyzed using SPSS Statistics Version 26. Descriptive statistics (Percentages and frequencies) were calculated.Results:Out of 904 cases, 799 (88.38%) were analyzed. Sexual assault cases were 235 (29.41%).Seminal-fluid detection was positive in 80 (34.04%) cases and negative in 155 (65.96%) cases. Blood identification cases were the most common, accounting for 402 (50.31%) cases, followed by toxicology cases (137; 17.14%). The most common poison identified was phosphine. The number of cases increased from 263 (2023) to 348 (2025), showing an overall increase of 32.3%.Conclusion: Sexual assaults are a major forensic workload. The high proportion of negative seminalfluid detection findings highlights limitations in biological evidence detection and emphasizes the need to improve medico-legal practices.

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