The elderly are a group susceptible to violent crime and injury because of their increased frailty, heightened fear of crime, and perception of vulnerability by themselves and others. However, limited information on elderly violence is available due to relatively low victimization rates in the United States. A logistic model was developed to predict survival following assault from different demographic and interpersonal factors for the elderly and the general population. Five years of data were obtained from the National Incident-Based Reporting System. Results show the elderly have a higher risk of death from assault than younger age groups and there is evidence of an excessively high risk of fatality in both felony-related and firearm-related assaults for younger and older victims. Assaults involving family/known persons were also associated with a higher fatality risk than incidents involving strangers. Suggestions are made for primary and secondary prevention strategies and issues to consider for future research.

Abstract. Objective: Legal decisions in sexual assault cases often hinge on the presence or absence of genitorectal injury. Unfortunately, the forensic literature does not explain why some victims sustain genitorectal injury and others do not. This study explores possible predictors of genitorectal injury in adult female sexual assault victims. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional analysis forms the derivation set for a larger planned prospective analysis. The authors extracted data describing consecutive female sexual assault victims who met inclusion criteria between July 1995 and July 1998. Exclusion criteria included male sex, lack of estrogen in females, consensual intercourse within the previous 72 hours, and lack of penetration during the assault. The authors explored associations between genitorectal injury and seven demographic variables, nine assault characteristics, and the time between assault and exam or postcoital interval (PCI). Variables thought to be predictive were incorporated into a logistic regression model. Results: Five hundred forty-eight sexual assault victims were seen during the study time period; 209 of these met the inclusion criteria. Logistic regression controlling for important covariates showed an increase risk of genitorectal injury with a PCI < 24 hours (OR 7.47, 95% CI = 1.78 to 31.35), physical/verbal resistance (OR 5.96, 95% CI = 1.21 to 29.36), rectal penetration (OR 7.47, 95% CI = 1.05 to 53.07), and greater than high school education (OR 7.13, 95% CI = 1.03 to 49.65). Conclusions:This study presents an important first look at variables that may predict genitorectal injury in sexual assault victims. Future studies that examine more data are needed to corroborate this preliminary derivation set analysis. Key words: rape; genital injury; sexual assault; anal injury. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2002; 9: 146-151 A LTHOUGH there has been a decrease in violent crime overall, sexual assault remains a significant societal problem that affects more than 350,000 women and men each year.1 At most, only a third of sexual assault victims report the crime to law enforcement.1 Reasons for nonreporting include the victim's fear of retaliation by the perpetrator, the stigmatization associated with being a rape victim, victims' feelings that they are to blame for the rape, a distrust of law enforcement and medical personnel, and feelings that no one will believe them. Despite reports, evidentiary examination, and forensic evidence collection, the majority of rape cases never result in the filing of criminal charges. Reasons that charges are not filed

Objectives: Forensic investigators remain unsure exactly why some sexual assault victims display acute injury while others do not. This investigation explores potential reasons for these differential findings among female victims.Methods: This cross-sectional analysis examined data from consecutive female sexual assault victims, at least 12 years old, who agreed to a forensic exam between November 1, 2002, and November 30, 2006. Exams utilized colposcopy, anoscopy, macrodigital imaging, and toluidine blue dye to delineate anogenital injury (AGI), which was defined as the presence of recorded anogenital abrasions, tears, or ecchymosis. Demographic variables of the victim, including sexual experience and reproductive parity, and assault characteristics were recorded in the database for bivariate and multivariate analysis with AGI.Results: Forty-nine percent of the initial 3,356 patients displayed AGI. Of this total, 2,879 cases included complete data for all variables and were included in the multivariate logistic regression model. A statistically significant increased risk for AGI was noted with: educational status (odds ratio [OR] 1.53, 95% CI = 1.25 to 1.87); vaginal or attempted penetration using penis (OR 2.29, 95% CI = 1.74 to 3.01), finger (OR 1.61, 95% CI = 1.88 to 1.94), or object (OR 3.19, 95% CI = 1.52 to 6.68); anal-penile penetration (OR 2.00, 95% CI = 1.57 to 2.54); alcohol involvement (OR 1.25, 95% CI = 1.04 to 1.50); and virgin status of victim (OR 1.38, 95% CI = 1.11 to 1.71). Victims were less likely to display AGI with a longer postcoital interval (OR 0.50, 95% CI = 0.39 to 0.65) and increased parity (OR 0.76, 95% CI = 0.57 to 0.99). Conclusions:Approximately half the patients displayed AGI. This rate is higher than earlier studies, but consistent with current investigations utilizing similar injury detection methods. The correlates of injury found reinforce the findings of prior studies, while prompting questions for future study.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2008; 15:231-238 ª

This article explores the association between professional football games and domestic violence (DV) by performing an ecological time trend analysis of Los Angeles Sheriff Department's (LASD) data from January 1, 1993, to December 31, 1995. Mean weekly DV dispatch increase in the 1993-1994 football season was 69% during nonfootball season compared with 100% during football season (p = 0.09), 147% during playoff weeks, and 264% during Super Bowl (SB) week. Mean weekly increase over the entire time period was 63% during nonfootball season compared with 74% during total football season (p = 0.26), 74% during playoff weeks, and 101% during SB weeks. Overall, authors failed to observe a statistically significant association between DV police dispatches and the timing of professional football in Los Angeles County. Impressive increases in dispatches, however, were noted during the 1993-1994 playoff and Super Bowl weeks that could not be tested due to insufficient sample size.