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Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use

Recently, there has been an increase in referrals of male victims of sexual assault to interdisciplinary sexual assault centers (SACs). Still, there is limited research on the characteristics of men who refer or are referred to SACs and the services they need. To facilitate the medical, forensic, an...

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Autores principales: Covers, Milou L. V., Teeuwen, Janna, Bicanic, Iva A. E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9326791/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33983069
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08862605211015220
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author Covers, Milou L. V.
Teeuwen, Janna
Bicanic, Iva A. E.
author_facet Covers, Milou L. V.
Teeuwen, Janna
Bicanic, Iva A. E.
author_sort Covers, Milou L. V.
collection PubMed
description Recently, there has been an increase in referrals of male victims of sexual assault to interdisciplinary sexual assault centers (SACs). Still, there is limited research on the characteristics of men who refer or are referred to SACs and the services they need. To facilitate the medical, forensic, and psychological treatment in SACs, a better understanding of male victims is indispensable. The first aim of the study was to analyze the victim and assault characteristics of male victims at a Dutch SAC, and to compare them to those of female victims. The second aim was to analyze and compare SAC service use between male and female victims. The victim characteristics, assault characteristics, and service use of 34 male victims and 633 female victims were collected in a Dutch SAC. T-tests and chi-square tests were used to analyze differences between male and female victims. No differences between males and females in victim or assault characteristics were found. Most victims received medical and psychological care, with no differences between male and female victims. Female victims were more likely to have contact with the police, but no differences in reporting or forensic medical examinations between males and females were found. These findings indicate that SACs can and do provide equal services to male and female victims, and that the current services are suitable for male victims as well. However, a focus on educating and advising male victims about police involvement is advisable.
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spelling pubmed-93267912022-07-28 Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use Covers, Milou L. V. Teeuwen, Janna Bicanic, Iva A. E. J Interpers Violence Original Articles Recently, there has been an increase in referrals of male victims of sexual assault to interdisciplinary sexual assault centers (SACs). Still, there is limited research on the characteristics of men who refer or are referred to SACs and the services they need. To facilitate the medical, forensic, and psychological treatment in SACs, a better understanding of male victims is indispensable. The first aim of the study was to analyze the victim and assault characteristics of male victims at a Dutch SAC, and to compare them to those of female victims. The second aim was to analyze and compare SAC service use between male and female victims. The victim characteristics, assault characteristics, and service use of 34 male victims and 633 female victims were collected in a Dutch SAC. T-tests and chi-square tests were used to analyze differences between male and female victims. No differences between males and females in victim or assault characteristics were found. Most victims received medical and psychological care, with no differences between male and female victims. Female victims were more likely to have contact with the police, but no differences in reporting or forensic medical examinations between males and females were found. These findings indicate that SACs can and do provide equal services to male and female victims, and that the current services are suitable for male victims as well. However, a focus on educating and advising male victims about police involvement is advisable. SAGE Publications 2021-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9326791/ /pubmed/33983069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08862605211015220 Text en © 2021 SAGE Publications https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Articles
Covers, Milou L. V.
Teeuwen, Janna
Bicanic, Iva A. E.
Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use
title Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use
title_full Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use
title_fullStr Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use
title_full_unstemmed Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use
title_short Male Victims at a Dutch Sexual Assault Center: A Comparison to Female Victims inCharacteristics and Service Use
title_sort male victims at a dutch sexual assault center: a comparison to female victims incharacteristics and service use
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9326791/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33983069
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08862605211015220
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