The emergency ward of Landspitalinn, University Hospital of Iceland has never received as many causalities of rape seeking help as last year according to RUV’s report. The administrator of the ward told reporter that the assaults are increasingly severe and the victims describe an increased humiliation from the perpetrators verbally and physically. Despite the increase in victims in the emergency ward the number of charges that reach have not increased.
A total 169 of individuals sought help of the emergency ward because of rape was in 2016, thereof 161 women and eight men. That’s the largest number of rape victims since the ward opened in 1993. In the previous year, 2015 the number was 145 individuals.
Emergency ward’s administrator, Hronn Stefansdottir, tells that the rapes are increasingly ruthless. The victims describe more tangible physical trauma than in previous years. There are twenty-two cases of mass rape, where the perpetrators are more than one and according to Stefansdottir that’s not an increase, but alarming none the less. She speculates that the increased accessibility to porn and the mounting viciousness in the porn industry is a factor in the development of rape culture. The largest age group seeking the aid of the ward is from 18-25 and by far they’re most common on weekends and on Mondays.
Featured image: Landspitalinn, National University Hospital