Valoración de las lesiones físicas en 702 casos de violencia sexual en la provincia de Alicante (2016-2020)

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of the victims and the circumstances of sexual violence related with the risk of physical lesions, as well as to determine the frequency and severity of the injuries.

Material and methods

Descriptive study of 702 cases of sexual assault attended at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Alicante between the years 2016–2020. A comparative study was carried out between victims with and without injuries, to identify the variables associated to their presentation.

Results

314 victims attended showed physical injuries (44,8%). Profile of the victims with injuries were women (95.5%), aged 18 to 27 years (31.3%), and previous alcohol consumption (50%). Injuries physical were mainly extragenital (38.6%), anogenital (15%), or both, and most cases were mild in severity (97.5%). Recovery was less to one week (83.4%) and without aftermath (97.1%). When the victim showed aftermath (9 cases), the most frequent were psychological type (1.6%).

Conclusions

Physical injuries in sexual violence is related with circumstances of victim vulnerability: women, age between 18 to 27 years, and previous alcohol consumption.

Our study shows that anogenital lesions are absent in a significative number of victims of sexual assault, so this absence cannot exclude sexual violence. The lesions found are mild in severity, and the absence of physical aftermath in most of the victims may be conditioned by the scarce follow-up of them.