Rape and attempted rape in Aarhus County, Denmark Police reported and unreported cases.

The aim of this study was to compare medical and nonmedical findings in police reported and unreported cases of rape and attempted rape in the county of Aarhus, Denmark, and to explore whether legal outcomes were influenced by medico-legal findings in the cases reported to the police.Data on rapes and attempted rapes were collected from the files of the Department of Forensic Medicine, police reports, and court files. Eighty-seven victims of alleged rape and attempted rape were included in a 14-month period. Of these, 60% were categorized as date rapes, 23% as stranger rapes, and 16% as partner rapes. Sixteen percent did not report the alleged crime to the police, but still participated in a medico-legal examination. Twenty-nine percent filed police reports, but did not have a medico-legal examination undertaken.Extra-genital lesions were more common among the women who filed police reports (63 vs 43%). Women who weee subjected to date rape and partner rape and had not suffered physical injuries were more reluctant to report to the police. Twelve cases were taken to court; 11 offenders were convicted with 1 acquitted. The presence of injuries, vaginal penetration, or the findings of semen, in this study, had not in fluenced the legal outcome.