Corpse identification is a major concern in forensic medicine. This study aimed to determine the frequency of cases of unidentified corpse discovery in the city of Cotonou and describe the procedure related to their judicial management. Material and Methods: This research work was a case control study conducted in the largest public funeral home in the city of Cotonou. Data were analyzed using the software Epi-info. Results: During the time period of study, unidentified corpses accounted for 1.27% of the dead bodies admitted to the funeral home. In 70.4% of cases, corpses were those of men. To identify corpses, a judicial inquiry was initiated in 51.5% of cases. Only 8.8% of corpses were officially sealed and only 3.0% of corpses underwent a forensic autopsy. Conclusion:Those results suggest that very little has been done to enable the restitution of mortal remains to families.

This study aimed to describe the knowledge of relatives of the deceased regarding forensic autopsy and to analyze their perceptions of this forensic act. The focus of the study was the relatives of deceased individuals who died in violent contexts or suffered suspicious deaths, in which case a forensic autopsy was necessary. A total of 109 people were included in the study. The majority of respondents were male (78.0%). The average age of respondents was 46 +/-11 years. A total of 56.9% of respondents had never heard the expression "medico-legal autopsy" before the death of the relative. Respondents know. that autopsies are used to identify the cause of death in 80.7% of cases. An association was found between level of education and level of knowledge concerning forensic autopsies (p=0.001). A total of 85.3% of respondents had poor perceptions of forensic autopsy. The preservation of bodily integrity was more important than the benefits of knowing the cause of death for 57.8% of respondents. Respondents claimed that family members made at least one attempt to postpone the autopsy in 94.5% of cases. Objections to the autopsy were motivated by the fear of not being able to proceed quickly with the burial (93.6%), the fear of seeing the body undergo an aesthetic alteration (74.3%), the feeling of inflicting suffering on the deceased (45.3%) and the conception of autopsy as a practice prohibited by respondents' religion (38.5%). The cultural and human dimensions of forensic autopsy should not be overlooked. For more support from the relatives of the deceased, it is essential to integrate, beyond medicine and law, social considerations and human.

In republic of Benin, rape is a crime for which the law provides harsh penalties. The perpetrators of that form of crime are tried in the courts of appeal by special jurisdictions: the criminal courts. We conducted a case control study on 127 cases of rape investigated and judged by the court of appeal of Cotonou from 2005 to 2015. This research work points out that victims are exclusively women and girls and that 62.2% of them are children under 13 years of age. As regards offenders, all of them are male subjects and young adults in 63.8% of cases. They were acquaintances of the victims in 68.5% of the cases; and they all confessed to the criminal action with which they were charged. The victims were subject to medical examination 7 times out of 10 without police requisition. Those medical consultations confirmed the presence of injuries caused by extra-genital violence in %18.9 of victims. Defloration signs were noted in 79.7% of the girls less than 13 years old. The populations and health professionals should be sensitized about victims' identification and sociocultural conditions that may facilitate the commission of those crimes; it is an important action to be carried so as to ensure an efficient fight against sexual violence.