Sexual violence in the ABC Paulista: portrait of 142 cases

Abstract

Introduction: Sexual abuse leaves severe sequels, such as social limitations. Objective: To investigate aspects of sexual violence and the victims treated at a specialized service in the city of Mauá, São Paulo, between 2008 to 2009. Methods: We analyzed 138 women, assisted at a University Hospital. Study is retrospective with survey of medical records for data collection. We studied: age, ethnicity, marital and sexual relationship, time of violence, number of aggressors, search for medical assistance, use of medications and protocol examinations, communication to the competent authorities, use of the weapon by the aggressor and number of resulting pregnancies. Results: The mean age  as 22 years. Most had no stable relationship, had sexual activity before the violence, were of white ethnicity, sought medical help within 72 hours after the event and used protocol medications. At night there were more crimes and violence at that time was more likely to be committed by more than one perpetrator. Only 26.7% of the patients acknowledged the perpetrators and only 42.9% and 21.8% of the women did report bullying and examination of the body of crime, respectively. In 40.8% some kind of weapon was used in the approach or during the crime. Finally, none of the patients who did emergency contraception became pregnant. Conclusion: The characterization of people who suffer sexual violence is of extreme importance for the creation of strategies for the care of prophylaxis of sexually transmitted diseases and outpatient follow-up until the end of treatment, as well as psychological counseling.