Young females are victims of violent injury

A new study from Rhode Island Hospital shows that a large proportion of victims of community violence treated in its emergency department are female. Injured adolescent females are more likely than males to be injured by a relative or intimate partner, and are more likely to be injured by a single assailant. Among females aged 10 to 19 who suffer an injury, however, most of the injuries are inflicted by a non-partner; these injuries are also more likely to have been caused by blunt force than a weapon. The study is now published online in advance of print in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.

In 2007, almost 485,000 violence-related injuries among adolescents aged 10 to 19 years were seen in emergency departments across the United States. While males are well known to be associated with community violence, the researchers report there is an increasing incidence of non-partner violence among young women. To date, little is known about the characteristics of assaulted young women. As a result of this knowledge gap, the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called for greater attention to the attributes of young women with violent injuries.

Lead author Megan Ranney, M.D., M.P.H., of the department of emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, and her colleagues conducted a retrospective chart review to begin to fill this gap. They studied the charts of all non-traffic related injuries among youth ages 10 to 19 who were seen in a three-year period in either the hospital's adult or pediatric trauma center, a Level I trauma center located in an urban area in Rhode Island's capital city of Providence.

In total, 828 charts were reviewed, and the researchers found 385 of the 828 injuries were caused by what they classify as "interpersonal violence" (meaning, that the injured person was intentionally hurt by someone else). Of the 385 violent injuries, 150 (40 percent) occurred among females, while 235 were among males. Female and male victims had similar race, age or insurance status.

Several key findings emerged from the study:

* Females were more likely than males to be documented as being injured by an intimate partner or relative, injured by only one person, and injured during the daytime.
* A higher percent of injured females were hurt by someone who was not an intimate partner (e.g., a friend, sibling or acquaintance) than by a partner.
* Overall, females were significantly more likely than males to be injured by someone known to them (57 percent of females versus 28 percent of males)
* Females were less likely to be documented as being injured by weapons (4 percent females versus 16 percent males)

Ranney says, "Where male and female victims of community violence differed in this chart review was in the circumstances of their injury. Our study shows that adolescent females are more likely than males to be injured by a relative or intimate partner, and equally likely to be injured by friends or strangers. "