Changes Urged in Testing for Sexual Assault of Children

Children who have been sexually assaulted should not be tested for blood and other evidence after 24 hours have elapsed because of the added trauma they incur and the slim chance that anything will be found, a new study suggests.

However, clothes and bed linens are good sources of evidence and should be collected for criminal investigation whenever possible, the study of Philadelphia cases found.

The findings challenge the current thinking of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends testing if abuse has occurred within 72 hours.

The study, which appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, was written by researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., and the Philadelphia Police Department’s Criminalistics Laboratory.

The study reviewed the cases of children under 10 who were examined in Philadelphia emergency rooms between 1991 and 1996.

Some form of forensic evidence was identified in one-fourth of the cases. The majority of the evidence found, 64%, was collected from clothing or linens.

The study found that 90% of the time, if evidence was recovered, the child had been tested within 24 hours. Blood evidence was never found after 13 hours, nor semen after nine hours.

The researchers conclude that children should not be swabbed for forensic evidence after 24 hours, to prevent further trauma.

“On the other hand, there were much higher yields of forensic evidence on the child’s clothing and household linens, and we suggest that these items should be aggressively pursued for examination,” said Dr. Cindy W. Christian, medical director of Child Abuse Services at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.