Post-assault treatment of sexual assault victims

After a sexual assault or rape, victims are often subjected to scrutiny and, in some cases, mistreatment. Victims undergo medical examinations and are interviewed by police. If there is a criminal trial, victims suffer a loss of privacy and their credibility may be challenged. Victims may also become the target of slut-shaming, abuse, social stigmatization, sexual slurs and cyberbullying.

Various laws have been created with a motive to protect victims. During criminal proceedings, publication bans and rape shield laws protect victims from excessive public scrutiny. Laws may also prohibit defence lawyers from obtaining a victim's medical, psychiatric or therapeutic records. Statutory rape laws set the age of legal consent for sexual activity and prohibits perpetrators from alleging the victim consented to the activity. Victims in some jurisdictions can seek damages from police and institutions if warnings were not issued. Numerous victims' rights groups operate to improve the treatment of victims.

Victims of sexual assault are often subjected to an invasive medical examination in order to collect and preserve evidence for future legal proceedings. The examination may include the collection of semen, blood, saliva and other bodily fluids by swabbing the victim's genitals, rectum, mouth and body surfaces. Examiners may also collect fingernail scrapings and pluck head and pubic hairs. If the facility has the means, and the victim consents, the examiner will also take photographs of genital injuries using a colposcope. A 'rape kit' contains the items used by medical personnel for gathering and preserving physical evidence.

Many "rape kits" are untested because they are never submitted to crime labs or because crime labs have insufficient resources to test all of the submitted kits. In the United States, national surveys of law enforcement agencies suggest there may be upwards of 200,000 untested rape kits.

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