Pediatric Forensic Analysis: The Benefits of DNA Collection Beyond 24 Hours

Although the presence of forensic evidence aids in successful prosecution of sexual abuse, controversy remains regarding the timing and indications for collection of forensic evidence in child sexual abuse/assault.

The purpose of this study was to describe forensic evidence findings in acute child sexual abuse after implementing more inclusive indications for collection of evidence in a pediatric emergency department and to identify factors associated with yield of DNA.

Of the 306 evidence kits collected and analyzed, 110 (35.9%) kits were positive for an interpretable DNA profile foreign to the patient, which may or may not have contributed to the investigation of the sexual abuse concern. Several factors were associated with increased forensic yield of identifiable foreign DNA: increased age of child victim, 48 hours or less between the latest incident of sexual abuse and the collection of forensic evidence, child disclosure of high-severity sexual abuse acts (anal-genital or genital-genital contact) in the pediatric emergency department forensic interview, and sexual abuse by a nonrelative perpetrator.

Finally, although certain factors were associated with increased yield of identifiable foreign DNA within each factor, there were multiple outliers where failure to collect forensic evidence would have resulted in a loss of recoverable foreign DNA.