Sexual abuse experiences of psychiatric patients

By interviewing 200 male psychiatric patients and 150 female psychiatric patients, we found that 17.1% of the respondents had experienced sexual victimization during their childhood. Only 11% of a control group of 50 males and 50 females, who had never received psychiatric treatment, reported similar victimization. The incidence of intrafamilial sexual victimization was greater among females than males. The group that had suffered the most sexual victimization was that of female psychiatric patients diagnosed with neuroses. Sexual victimization linked to aggressive behaviour and threats of violence was more common in the case of male and female psychiatric patients than in the control groups. Only 4% of the sexual victimization cases were investigated by the police.