ABSTRACT
Since doctors usually work in a surgery or hospital clinic, the diagnosis will be made following a process of history-taking and examining the child.
Paediatricians see children as their patients and are therefore bound to come into contact with child sexual abuse. Some of these children may have symptoms and signs, and if they have not disclosed the abuse they depend on a doctor to initiate concern about it. Both doctors and children will benefit from medical practice that accepts and recognises a level of medical concern expressed in terms of ‘reasonable medical certainty’ (Krugman 1989).
