“A rape victim would have gone to the hospital if they were injured.”
A study found that only 27% of rape victims that were injured sought medical treatment after the rape. That number becomes even lower when the rapist was an intimate partner.
Of the 3001 women from the original sample, a total of 445 (15%) met criteria for a most-recent/only rape, and 93 (21% of victims) received post-rape medical attention. Of injured rape victims (n=201), 27% sought medical attention. Approximately 32% of women with STD concerns, 28% of women with HIV concerns, and 26% of women with pregnancy concerns sought medical attention. The majority of women who received post-rape medical care reported peri-traumatic fear, injury, acknowledging the incident as a rape, forcible rape tactics, STD concerns, HIV concerns, fear of family finding out about the incident, and fear of pregnancy.
For example, Mahoney (1999) found that women who were sexually assaulted by their husbands and former husbands were significantly less likely to seek medical care than women who were assaulted by strangers.