Citation

Makasa I, Heathfield LJ. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 2017; 54: 23-33.

Affiliation

Division of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa. Electronic address: laura.heathfield@uct.ac.za.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jflm.2017.12.009

PMID

29306795

Abstract

Zambia has recently reported high incidences of sexual abuse against women and children. Zambian law categorises sexual offences into rape, defilement, incest and others, with defilement constituting the majority of the reported cases (>89%). Between 2010 and 2012, convictions of defilement cases were achieved in only 13% of cases reported to the police. DNA evidence has shown prominence in resolving crimes, specifically as an identification tool in sexual offences. Currently there is no empirical evidence describing the role of forensic evidence in sexual crimes in Zambia; as such a retrospective study was conducted to evaluate this between 2007 and 2014 (n = 1154). Only 14 (0.1%) of the cases had forensic samples collected in the form of a vaginal swab for semen analysis. In all cases where a suspect was identified (60%), identification was based on the witness/victim testimonies, and in no case, was forensic DNA evidence used to assist in identification or corroborate the testimonies. Overall, 28.1% of cases were taken to court and the conviction rate was 12.4%. These findings support the use of employing DNA evidence in sexual offence cases to aid the identification of suspects, which is hypothesised to increase the number of cases prosecuted in Zambia.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Defilement; Forensic DNA evidence; Rape; Sexual offence; Zambia