Epidemics of the Social Kind : AMA deplores increase in sexual assaults and family violence

The figures shame and appall. Every 45 seconds in the United States a woman is sexually assaulted. Each year more than 700,000 suffer the wounds, psychic shock and humiliation of sexual assault. The president of the American Medical Assn., Dr. Lonnie Bristow, is calling for greater public awareness of an “epidemic growing at an alarming rate and traumatizing the women and children of our nation.” It’s vital that the manifold causes of this public health problem be identified so that preventive measures can be taken.

Most rape victims--61%--are under age 18, the AMA says in a new report. In three-fourths of all sexual assaults, the victims, 95% of them female, know the attackers as friends, acquaintances, intimate partners or family members. Those associations often stand in the way of the assaults being reported. “This crime,” says Bristow, “is shrouded in silence, caused by unfair social myths and biases that incriminate victims rather than offenders.”

Violence is also increasingly afflicting families, the AMA notes. Between 2 million and 4 million women are battered in the United States each year; 1,500 are killed by intimate partners. Each year also finds 1.7 million reports of child abuse filed. How many other cases go unreported can only be guessed at.

The AMA wants physicians to become better informed about sexual assaults and family violence, including mistreatment of the elderly, and has sent instructive material to its members. It urges victims to discuss their experiences with their doctors.

These are useful steps, but they deal with consequences rather than causes. The larger issue that cries out to be addressed is why there has been such an increase in sexual and family violence. And what, if any, kind of intervention can be taken to reverse this frightful trend.