Sexual Assault: Victimization Across the Life Span

Angelo Giardino is the medical director of Texas Children's Health Plan, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and an attending physician for the Texas Children's Hospital's forensic pediatrics service at the Children's Assessment Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Giardino completed his residency and fellowship training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Immediately after his fellowship training, Dr. Giardino became the assistant, and then the associate, medical director at Health Partners of Philadelphia, where he had primary responsibility for utilization management, intensive case management, and health care data analysis. He also shared responsibility for the plan's quality improvement program. Additionally, Dr. Giardino began the Child Abuse and Neglect Team for Children with Special Health Care Needs, which was funded by a three-year grant from a local philanthropist. In 1998, he was appointed associate chair of clinical operations in the Department of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and in June of 1999, he was asked to chair the CHOP Quality Committee. These accomplishments are only a few of his career.

Elizabeth Datner is the medical director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She joined the department in July 1995 after completing the George Washington University/Georgetown University Combined Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program. Dr. Datner received her MD from The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 1991. Her research interests lie in the areas of interpersonal violence and women's health, specifically domestic violence, youth violence, and pregnancy-related emergencies.

Janice Asher received her MD from Rush medical College in 1977. She is an assistant clinical professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is also the medical director of Women's Health in the Student Health Service at the university. From 1966 to 2001, Dr. Asher was the clinical director for Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility. Currently, she is the clinical director for the Institute of Safe Families, a Philadelphia-based organization specializing in professional training, policy development, and multidisciplinary coordination of relationship violence victim services. Dr. Asher has lectured widely on the subject of relationship violence and trained medical students and physicians across the United States in violence assessment and intervention in the medical setting.

Barbara Girardin earned her PhD in nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Currently employed as a forensic nurse, trainer, and grant writer by the Healing Hearts Rape Crisis Center in Tamuning, Guam, she has 31 years of clinical practice experience in the acute and critical care of adolescents and adults, with eight years of clinical practice in forensic nursing, conducting acute sexual assault exams, developing policies and standards of practice, and receiving funding for federal grants. Dr. Girardin served as a consultant for the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), Guam and at Naval Hospital, Guam, where she teaches the sexual assault advocate program at the Family Service Center. She authors a newsletter column titled "Research Briefs in Forensic Nursing" for the International Association of Forensic Nurses. She has also conducted community education programs for more than 500 middle and high school students, parents, and military commands on the topic of sexual assault. Dr. Girardin has served and is available as an expert forensic witness in sexual assault cases.

Diana Faugno earned her nursing degree at the University of North Dakota in 1973. She currently serves on the board of directors for End Violence Against Women International, the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN), and the California American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. Diana dem-onstrates her passion for and commitment to helping patients through her work as a sexual assault nurse examiner at the the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. She also is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Science and a distinguished fellow of IAFN. In addition, Diana co-authors books, writes numerous journal and magazine articles, and trains teams across the country on various topics related to sexual assault.

Mary Spencer is medical director of the Child Abuse Program and the Sexual Abuse Response Team at Palomar-Pomerado Health in North San Diego County. She received her BA from the University of Colorado and MD from the University of California-Los Angeles. After medical school, Dr. Spencer completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at UCLA and worked as an assistant professor at the school until 1982. Currently, she is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego and has a private practice in pediatric and infectious disease medicine in Escondido.

From the Journal of the American Medical Association:

Sexual Assault: Victimization Across the Life Span is a two-volume collection. The mission of the publisher, GW Medical Publishing, is "to become the world leader in publishing and information services on child abuse, maltreatment and diseases, and domestic violence."

The editors of the first volume, A Clinical Guide, are physicians with specialties in pediatrics, emergency medicine, and obstetrics-gynecology. Their goal is "to propagate information necessary to promote change, to better protect, and to better care for victims of sexual assault and sexual abuse." The information contained is directed to all disciplines that provide care for victims and handle offender dispositions, including prehospital personnel, detectives, skilled medical staff, rape crisis counselors, and sexual assault examiners.

The editors of volume two, A Color Atlas, have backgrounds in pediatrics and forensic health care. The atlas has more than 1600 color photographic images. The chapters in the atlas are arranged by developmental stages: infancy, childhood, preadolescence, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, and elderly. The goal is to help "provide better care to victims of sexual violence and to hold offenders accountable to society for their crimes."

The clinical guide has 32 chapters. The first 11 focus on child sexual abuse. Chapters start with an overview, then cover anatomy and the forensic evaluation. Separate chapters deal with male victims and persons with disabilities. Additional chapters address the teamwork approach to child sexual abuse, documentation, networks, and special technological tools.

Chapters 12 through 15 cover the evaluation of the adolescent and adult victims of sexual assault. The next two chapters give special attention to DNA evidence, sexually transmitted disease prophylaxis, and pregnancy prophylaxis. Outstanding features are the chapters on dating violence, acquaintance rape, domestic violence, and special populations (pregnant women, older adults, and incarcerated women). Chapters 23 and 24 explain the psychosocial trauma associated with sexual assault and offer resources for social support.

The editors include valuable information for maintaining health professional efficacy and for preventing and treating burnout. Vicarious traumatization is well defined and explained so that all sexual assault service professionals are able to understand their own potential sources of trauma.

The final chapters describe the history and development of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner-Sexual Assault Response Team (SANE-SART) programs. These chapters discuss the roles of emergency medical services, law enforcement, investigating officers, and prosecutors and offer supportive direction to these disciplines.

These two volumes are a comprehensive and up-to-date collection on sexual assault with chapters by leaders in the field. Much of the information is evidence-based. The references are extensive and cover the gamut of the field. The editors have successfully included most of the important topics although additional attention could have been given to cultural issues and to recovery.

Reading the volumes has dramatically strengthened my understanding of the role of other members of the SART. In addition, the two volumes of Sexual Assault are an excellent teaching resource. The style and format make digesting the material uncomplicated. The language is concise and the content informative. I think the editors of both volumes have achieved the goal of disseminating practical evidence-based information for anyone working in the field of sexual assault and sexual abuse. I highly recommend these volumes for all who care for victims of sexual assault.

Sandra R. Scott, MD
University of Medicine and Dentistry of Newark
Newark, NJ

JAMA
November 10, 2004 - Vol. 292, No. 18

Excellent tools . . . [T]his is one of the best educational resources my office has ever purchased.

Arial Trudeau
Victim Assistance Specialist
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Program
Polk County Attorney's Office

This book is the first to bring together the best information available concerning sexual victimization across the entire lifespan.

Robert M. Reece, MD
Director, MSPCC Institute for Professional Education
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
Tufts University School of Medicine
Executive Editor, The Quarterly Child Abuse Medical Update

Until [prevention] becomes a cultural imperative of its own, we will continue to need books such as these.

Randell Alexander, MD, PhD
Atlanta, GA

This text is a testament to the skill of the many examiners who took these excellent photographs. Discerning readers should come away from viewing these images with a clearer sense of how to document and how to interpret anogenital findings in sexual assault victims of all ages.

Lawrence R. Ricci, MD
Director, The Spurwink Child Abuse Program
Portland, ME
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
University of Vermont College of Medicine

This text shows a wide variety of findings and variations that illustrate the observations and histories in sexual assault examinations.

Kelly Bell, RN, BLS, SANE-A
Forensic Nurse Examiner
Tulsa Police Department
Tulsa, OK

From On the Edge:

This two-volume set is a must-have for practitioners who regularly interface and serve this patient population. Sincere appreciation will surely be expressed from colleagues and peers for this two-volume set, and will no doubt become the bible for guidance in attaining effective management of sexual assault.

Lynda Benak, MSN, RN
On the Edge
The Official Publication of the International Association of Forensic Nurses
Fall, 2003 - Vol. 9, No. 3

The two-volume Sexual Assault Victimization Across the Life Span with CD-ROM is a must-have reference for any professional working in the field of sexual assault assessment and forensic evidence collection. As a SANE and a Family Nurse Practitioner in a rural community where I may only have one to two cases a month, the color atlas and CD-ROM provide me with an experience as close as I can get to actually doing several cases per month in a higher volume center. Thank you for this resource.

Elizabeth Helms, FNP, SANE
St. Vincent Randolph Hospital

The book is great. I have used it in training for new nurses, as a reference in court, and to just reaffirm myself on findings. It was a great purchase.

Joy Thomas, RN, SANE-A