PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
After a sexual assault, survivors have the option of seeking a medical forensic exam, which includes medical evaluation and treatment, as well as forensic evidence collection. Forensic evidence is collected in a sexual assault evidence kit (SAEK) and typically released to police to aid in the investigation and potential prosecution of the assault. However, 20% to 25% of survivors who have a SAEK collected do not report their assault to police at that time and choose instead to have their SAEK stored for possible future use. This study sought to understand the reasons for not reporting among this group of survivors. We examined medical records of 296 individuals aged 18 and older who had documented their reasons for not reporting to police in their medical record and used a non-theory-driven coding framework to conduct a reflexive thematic analysis based on that data. We identified four themes: Reporting Won\'t Help, Reporting Will Harm, Not Now, and Not What I\'m Here For. These data illustrate that survivors are making an active choice which, for many, was based on concerns that reporting would not meaningfully help their situation or may even make their situations worse. For some survivors, the decision to have forensic evidence collected without a police report was based on their needs at that moment, whereas for other survivors it was based on their desire to move on from the assault more permanently. Practice and policy recommendations are discussed, including the importance of providing survivors information about what police reporting would look like in specific circumstances as well as ensuring that financial concerns are not a barrier to survivors receiving post-assault medical care without forensic evidence collection.
摘要：
性侵犯之后,幸存者可以选择进行法医检查,其中包括医学评估和治疗，以及法医证据收集。法医证据收集在性侵犯证据包（SAEK）中，通常会发布给警察，以帮助调查和潜在的起诉。然而,收集了SAEK的幸存者中有20％至25％当时不向警察报告他们的袭击，而是选择将其SAEK存储以备将来使用。这项研究试图了解这组幸存者不报告的原因。我们检查了296名年龄在18岁及以上的人的医疗记录，他们在医疗记录中记录了他们不向警察报告的原因，并使用非理论驱动的编码框架根据这些数据进行了反身性主题分析。我们确定了四个主题：报道无济于事，报道会有伤害,现在不行,而不是我来这里的目的.这些数据表明幸存者正在做出积极的选择，对许多人来说,是基于担心报告不会对他们的情况有意义，甚至可能使他们的情况变得更糟。对于一些幸存者来说，在没有警方报告的情况下收集法医证据的决定是基于他们当时的需要，而对于其他幸存者来说，这是基于他们更永久地从袭击中继续前进的愿望。实践和政策建议进行了讨论，包括向幸存者提供有关警察报告在特定情况下会是什么样子的信息的重要性，以及确保财务问题不会成为幸存者在没有法医证据收集的情况下接受袭击后医疗护理的障碍。
