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Women as victims of torture
Author(s) -
Fornazzari X.,
Freire M.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1990.tb03062.x
Subject(s) - torture , refugee , suicide prevention , psychiatry , injury prevention , poison control , medicine , occupational safety and health , intervention (counseling) , human factors and ergonomics , victimology , clinical psychology , latin americans , psychology , medical emergency , sexual abuse , human rights , archaeology , pathology , political science , law , history , linguistics , philosophy
This is a retrospective study on the effects of torture on Latin American refugee women in Toronto. Thirty‐six cases of female torture victims are reviewed. The cases are divided in 2 groups, according to whether they experienced physical and psychological torture or only psychological assaults. Both groups are compared in terms of demographic characteristics, social and/or political involvement prior to the traumatic experiences, symptoms for which they sought psychiatric intervention and recovery rates. The symptoms presented by all women are consistent with those described in the literature for torture victims, regardless of their sex. The main findings are that women who experienced direct physical and psychological violence more frequently had persistence of symptoms than women who experienced only psychological violence.