Female victims of rape and their genital injuries

Abstract

Objective A minority (some report < 10%) of women report sexual assault. Of those that negotiate the police process, only a minority will come to a court hearing. It is thought that the courts still rely upon medical evidence, in particular evidence of genital injury to 'prove' the rape. This study aimed to ascertain the incidence of genital injury in victims of alleged rapeDesign Retrospective review of case records of women who reported they had had been raped, provided by women doctors on the Northumbrian Police Doctors scheme.Sample Case records from Newcastle, North and South Tyneside, Sunderland and Northumbria.Methods Analysis of records in the standardised booklet used by police surgeons to examine women Main outcome measures Presence of genital injury, presence of other physical injuries.Results A minority of women had genital injuries (22/83); the majority had some form of physical injury ConclusionThe study shows that only a minority of women examined by specifically trained police reporting rape.(68/83), although most of these were minor.doctors show evidence of genital injury. The absence of genital injury does not exclude rape.

Genitoanal injury in adult female victims of sexual assault

“…Genital and non-genital injuries are not inevitable consequences of sexual assault [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. However, the documentation of any genitoanal injuries is an important element in the medico-legal examination; the type and localizations of these injuries are described in several studies [1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Different Functions of Rape Myth Use in Court: Findings From a Trial Observation Study

“…Moreover, it is a myth both that rape necessarily involves injury or torn clothing and that where force is used, this will always leave a trace by way of marks or bruising. Victims of rape may well suffer no genital or other physical injury (Bowyer & Dalton, 1997;Sugar, Fine, & Eckert, 2004). Yet these myths featured strongly in two of the eight trials (5 and 6) and were also present in Trial 2.…”

Gut prolapse into the perineum in a case of sexual assault

“…5 Only a minority of these victims have genital injuries. 2,7 Most of these are minor. At the time of initial examination, common findings include erythema of the tissues, edema of the skin folds, localized venous engorgement, dilatation of external anal sphincter and lacerations of various depths.…”

“…1 Incidence of genital injuries varies from 10-87% with overall incidence being less than 30%. 2 Most of these are minor. We report a case of sexual assault in a 6 year girl who presented with grade four perineal injury with intestine prolapsing out of the perineum.…”