The notion of 'psychic trauma" is defined. Medical criteria and characteristic clinical manifestations are discussed that may be used for expert estimation of the degree of health hazard in the form of psychogenic psychic disorder. It is shown that they are applicable to the evaluation of the consequences of a psychic trauma as exemplified by the results of forensic psychiatric expert examination of sexual offence victims carried out at V.P. Serbsky Research Centre of Social and Forensic Psychiatry by clinical and psychopathological methods.