Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009

EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009: Understanding Violence
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ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f victims o f v i o l e n c e
visiting a m e D i c o l e g a l c o n s u l t a t i o n :
a n o t h e r p a t h t o u n D e r s t a n D v i o l e n c e ?
Hofner, M.-Cl. 1 ; Romain, N. 1 ; Mangin, P. 1
Poster Abstracts
1 Violence Medical Unit (VMU), University Centre for Legal Medicine,
University Hospital Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland
To improve care and services to victims of interpersonal violence, a Violence
Medical Unit(VMU) was set up at the Lausanne University Hospital,
Switzerland in 2006. The VMU consultation offers medico-legal and community
care. Patients are received by forensic nurses for support, forensic
examination, needs assessment and community orientation.
A descriptive study of medical reports was conducted in 2008 with the
aim to explore characteristics of this specific population. During the study
period, 03.01.2006 to 31.12. 2007, the VMU registered 911 patients. Regarding
eligibility criteria (complete medical file and actual interpersonal
victimisation), final sample was 863, including: 55% of men and 45% of
women, with a mean age of 30,5 years. 89% of men reported community
violence for 37% of women, 63% of women reported domestic violence
for 11% of men. For 55% the present violent event was not the first one
in their adult lifetime and 25% reported violence during childhood. If 56%
didn’t have Swiss nationality, more than 90% were speaking French fluently.
85% of the aggressors were men for any type of violence and both
sex of victims.
Distribution of type of violence and socio demographic characteristics in
our population does not differ from literature results: the population is
young, men are more concerned by community violence and women by
domestic one .However, a quarter of our population reported violence in
childhood, more than a half already experienced being victim of violence
and aggressors independently of type of violence or sex of the victims are
men. Discussion of these results from a neuro scientific as well as a systemic
point of view would be of great interest to enlarge understanding of
the violent interpersonal interactions.
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