Citation

Campbell R, Ma W, Javorka MK, Gregory K, Vollinger L, Opsommer M. Psychol. Violence 2021; 11(3): 264-275.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/vio0000355

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Sexual assault victims are advised to have a medical forensic exam (MFE) to address postassault health concerns (e.g., injuries, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy) and a sexual assault kit (SAK) collected to preserve forensic evidence of the crime. Since these exams were created in the 1980s, there has been more focus on the utility of MFEs to police and prosecutors, which may not be consistent with survivors' needs. The purpose of the current study was to explore why adult sexual assault victims seek MFEs.

METHOD: We partnered with all state-funded sexual assault nurse examiner programs in a midwestern state to collect prospective data for 9 months. Forensic nurses recorded information about all adult sexual assault patients (N = 783) who sought care regarding (a) their stated reasons for seeking an MFE, (b) their postassault disclosures, and (c) their decisions to have sexual assault kits collected and released to law enforcement.

RESULTS: K-mode clustering identified 3 subgroups of sexual assault patients defined by their reasons for seeking an MFE. Cluster 1 (50.9% of the sample) sought care for primarily health-focused reasons; Cluster 2 (37.2%) sought MFEs because they wanted to pursue criminal investigation and prosecution; and Cluster 3 (12.4%) sought care because they were unsure whether they had been sexually assaulted.

CONCLUSIONS: The extent to which MFEs are framed as a component of criminal investigations, there is a substantial risk of losing the opportunity to provide postassault health care to a large subpopulation of sexual assault survivors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en