Abstract
Objective
To identify the prevalence of sexual violence in the adult population of the state of Espírito Santo and analyze its association with characteristics of the victim, the aggressor and the occurrence.
Methods
Epidemiological, analytical, cross-sectional study developed with notifications of sexual violence in adults aged 20-59 years between 2011 and 2018 from the Information System for Diseases and Notification. Data were obtained by the Health Department after project approval by the Ethics Committee in August 2019. The dependent variable was sexual violence and the independent variables were the characteristics of the victim, the aggressor and the occurrence. The analysis was performed using Stata 14.1 and the Poisson regression results were presented by prevalence ratio.
Results
Sexual violence accounted for 6.2% of reports of interpersonal violence and was about six times more prevalent among women. Victimization in the age group of 20-29 years was 1.51 times higher compared to the group of 40-49 years and 1.86 times higher in those who did not have a partner. It was also associated with residence in an urban area (PR: 1.60), aggressor aged 25 years or older (PR: 1.50), unknown (PR: 9.37), a single perpetrator (PR: 1.62) and occurrence in public places (PR: 1.38).
Conclusion
Violence is present among adults and some are more vulnerable, such as women, young adults without a partner, victims in urban areas, occurrences in public places and perpetrated by an older, unknown, single aggressor. These findings can support strategic actions to combat violence.
Violence; Sex offenses; Health information systems; Adult