Attitudes of medical school students towards victims of sexual assault

Aim: In our study, it is aimed to contribute to the literature by determining the behavior, thoughts and emotional attitudes of medical school students towards victims of sexual assault at the beginning and end of their education life, by measuring the pre-medical knowledge of the legal medicine education they received. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire containing demographic data and medicolegal evaluation questions that we prepared with the Social Attitudes towards Victims of Sexual Assault Scale has been applied to 370 students in semester 1 and semester 6 studying at Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine in the fall semester of 2021-2022. Data were analyzed using the packet statistics program (SPSS) 22.0. Results: 55.9% of the medical faculty students participating in our study were women, the mean age was 20.83±2.85, 56.5% were first-term students, and 18.9% of them stated that they or their close relatives were exposed to sexual behavior, which is considered a crime. It was found that the average score of the students who participated in the study was 95.29 on the Social Attitudes towards Victims of Sexual Assault Scale, the mean scores of women, aged 17-22 and those with a high monthly family income were statistically significantly higher. It was determined that 17.3% of the participants gave correct answers to all 6 forensic-medical questions directed to them. Conclusion: An endless problem arises with the negative attitudes of sexual assault victims after the trauma they experience. In particular, we believe that with the positive perspective that will be gained to medical school students regarding the attitude towards sexual assault victims, the level of medicolegal knowledge will also increase and a career opportunity will be created where they can reach more knowledgeable and accurate results from a professional point of view.