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Reports of repetitive penile‐genital penetration often have no definitive evidence of penetration
Author(s) -
Reading Richard
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2010.01090_1.x
Subject(s) - penetration (warfare) , sex organ , biology , engineering , operations research , genetics
OBJECTIVES: The goals were to evaluate the association of definitive hymenal findings with the number of reported episodes of penilegenital penetration, pain, bleeding, dysuria, and time since assault for girls presenting for nonacute, sexual assault examinations. METHODS: Charts of all girls 5 to 17 of age who provided a history of nonacute, penile-genital, penetrative abuse were reviewed. Interviews and examinations occurred over a 4-year period at a children’s advocacy center. Characteristics of the histories provided by the subjects were examined for associations with definitive findings of penetrative trauma. RESULTS: Five hundred six patients were included in the study. Of the 56 children with definitive examination results, 52 had no history of consensual penile-vaginal intercourse and all were 10 years of age. Analysis was unable to detect an association between the number of reported penile-genital penetrative events and definitive genital findings. Eightyseven percent of victimswhoprovided a history of 10 penetrative events had no definitive evidence of penetration. A history of bleeding with abuse wasmore than twice as likely for subjectswith definitive findings. Children 10 years of age were twice as likely to report 10 penetrative events, although none had definitive findings on examination. CONCLUSIONS: Most victims who reported repetitive penile-genital contact that involved some degree of perceived penetration had no definitive evidence of penetration on examination of the hymen. Similar results were seen for victims of repetitive assaults involving perceived penetration over long periods of time, as well as victims with a history of consensual sex. Pediatrics 2009;124:e403–e409 CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Anderst, MD, MSCI,a Nancy Kellogg, MD,a and Inkyung Jung, PhDb aDepartment of Pediatrics, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Kansas City, Missouri, bDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas