[Legal protection for abused Finnish women]

Many women with injuries resulting from criminal assault are examined by physicians at community health centres in Finland, without any differentiation being made between such injuries and injuries and trauma in general. Most of the victims do not seek medical treatment, and only a few of the 5,000 patients examined annually at forensic medicine departments are related to assault or incest. This suggests that the victims are usually cared for in some other way without a report being made to the police or contact with a physician.