The purpose of the study was to identify predictors of physical injury in adolescent and adult women, who have a medical history of rape. Severity of rape-related injury is linked to negative health consequences. Studying the impact of injury and the associated predictors expands the understanding of rape and the risks of long-term negative health consequences. Variables included regional setting, victim characteristics (age, ethnicity, and known or unknown perpetrator) and forensic characteristics (time from rape to examination, weapon presence, multiple perpetrators, and use of an evidence kit). Secondary analysis evaluated cross-sectional data of women (N = 3318) 13 to 89 years of age (M = 26.6; SD = 11.1) from three regions of the US: the northeast, the southern coast, and the west coast. The results of multiple logistic regression models included main and interaction effects, primarily involving setting and ethnicity variables. The forward stepwise model (chi-square [18] = 387.26, p = .001) demonstrated adequate fit based on the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit results (chi-square [7] = 5.72, p = .57), and was a slightly improved fit over the backward elimination model (chi-square [22] = 398.12, p = .001), which also had desirable Hosmer-Lemeshow chi-square results (chi-square [7] = 7.47 p = .38). The forward and backward models included ten significant interactions: Setting C by age, Setting C by examination time of >72 hours, Setting A by other ethnicity, Setting A by weapon presence, Setting A by examination time of 48-72 hours, and Setting A by multiple perpetrators, age by weapon presence, African American by examination time of 24-48 hours, African American by multiple perpetrators, other ethnicity by examination time of >72 hours, and unknown perpetrators by multiple perpetrators. Implications of this research emphasize the importance of location and ethnicity on documentation of injury and 1) can lead to refinement of data collection, 2) addresses the need for research in the acute time frame after rape, 3) informs tailored interventions, 4) links health and legal systems to improve forensic management, 5) emphasizes the need for multi-professional funding allocation for education, prevention and interventions to improve victim care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-03292006-124921 |
| Date | 24 April 2006 |
| Creators | Crane, Patricia A. |
| Contributors | Rose Constantino, Thelma Patrick, Kathleen Sekula, Susan Sereika, Susan Cohen |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-03292006-124921/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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