Monitoring Sexual Violence Visits in Emergency Department Data to Improve Public Health

Although sexual violence is a pressing public health and safety issue, it has historically been challenging to monitor population trends with precision. Approximately 31% of incidents of sexual violence are reported to law enforcement and only 5% lead to an arrest1, making the use of law enforcement data challenging. Syndromic surveillance data from emergency departments provides an opportunity to use care-seeking to more accurately surveil sexual violence without introducing additional burdens on either patients or healthcare providers.

Objective: To describe characteristics of sexual violence emergency department visits in Washington State.