Original ContributionsAnalysis of 1,076 cases of sexual assault☆
Introduction
The Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1994 estimated that 1 of 3 women and 1 of 7 men in the United States will be raped at some point in their lifetime.1 The incidence and prevalence of sexual assault is increasing, in part because of increased reporting of such crimes.
The acute treatment of sexual assault victims is most frequently handled in the setting of an emergency department, where a specialized and trained team of providers is available 24 hours per day.2 The physician’s primary function is not to determine whether a sexual assault has occurred because this is a legal determination but primarily to address the medical and psychologic needs of the patient.3 A secondary purpose of the examination is evidentiary documentation and collection. Emergency physicians thus need to be aware of the epidemiology of sexual assault victims and their associated injuries.
In 1992, Magid et al4 described changes in the epidemiology of sexual assault treated in the ED, including increases in the incidence of sexual assault, in the percentage of assailants known to their victims, and in the incidence of oral and anal assault. Since then, no study has described victim, assailant, assault, and treatment characteristics. Furthermore, few sexual assault studies have reported the results of the evidentiary examination.
The purpose of our study was to describe victim, assail-ant, assault, and treatment characteristics for sexual assault victims and to provide descriptive data on the evidentiary examination.
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
This study was conducted in an urban Level 1 trauma center. All sexual assault victims who report the crime to law enforcement within the city and county of Denver are triaged to this ED for a medical and evidentiary examination. This examination is always performed by the emergency medicine resident on duty during the shift.
All patients with a presenting chief complaint of sexual assault were eligible for this study. Patients who refused the evidentiary examination and those whose evidentiary
Results
One thousand one hundred twelve patients presented during the study period after a sexual assault. The data collection form was unavailable or the patient refused the evidentiary examination in 36 cases. A total of 1,076 (96.8%) subjects consented to the medical and evidentiary examination and were enrolled in the study. Unless otherwise noted, data were present in at least 93% of cases for all variables given. There were 1,035 (96.2%) female and 41 (3.8%) male subjects. Age ranged from 1 to 85
Discussion
Several demographic features of sexual assault victims and sexual assaults have changed in the past 20 years. Sexual assault victims are still much more likely to be female (96.2%) than male (3.8%). However, the percentage of sexual assaults perpetrated by strangers has declined.
Thirty-eight percent of our female sexual assault victims were assaulted by someone with whom they had an established relationship, and 24% were assaulted by a first-time acquaintance. A complete stranger was implicated
Acknowledgements
We thank Tasha Markovchick for her assistance with data entry.
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2023, Revista Espanola de Medicina LegalThe pattern of genito-anal injuries in female sexual assault cases in Mumbai, India
2021, Forensic Science International: ReportsCitation Excerpt :The common belief amongst police and judicial system is that sexual assault is associated with visible injury [1]. Few studies have described the association of injuries with sexual assault in which extra-genital and genital injuries were reported in 40–80% cases and 6–87% cases respectively [2–8]. It should be noted that documentation of injuries largely depends upon the experience of the examiner, examination technique as well as available infrastructure for examination of such cases.
The prevalence of genital injuries in post-pubertal females presenting for forensic examination after reported sexual violence: a systematic review
2024, International Journal of Legal MedicineStudy of Victims of Child Sexual Assault at a Tertiary Health Care Center in Western Maharashtra
2023, Journal of Forensic Medicine Science and Law
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Address for reprints: Debra Houry, MD, MPH, Department of Emergency Medicine, Mailcode #0108, Denver Health Medical Center, 777 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80204; fax 303-436-7541; E-mail [email protected] .