NCJ Number
143436
Journal
Archives of Internal Medicine Volume: 151 Dated: (February 1991) Pages: 342-347
Date Published
1991
Length
6 pages
Annotation
To document crime's long-term effects on women's health, a sample of 390 adult women (316 victims of crime and 74 nonvictims) were interviewed and screened for severity of crime victimization. Data included health status self-ratings and objective service utilization.
Abstract
Findings showed that, compared to nonvictims, female crime victims reported more stress and less well-being, visited their physicians twice as often, and had medical costs 2.5 times higher. Criminal victimization severity was the best predictor of physician visits and outpatient costs. Utilization data across the five years preceding and following the crime was obtained from 15 rape victims, 26 victims of physical assault, and 27 victims of noncontact crimes; data were compared to five continuous years of utilization among 26 controls. The analysis showed that victims' physician visits increased between 15 and 24 percent during the year of the crime, compared with less than a 2-percent change among nonvictims. Minor modification of current clinical history-taking practices could allow primary care physicians to identify traumatized crime victims and offer them an appropriate setting to consider treatment options. 1 table, 4 figures, and 59 references