Sexual abuse within the marital relationship.

The authors aim to characterise sexual abuse within the marital relationship. They analyzed the reports of the clinical examinations performed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Oporto on victims of sexual abuse from January 1990 until December 1994. They also randomly interviewed victims of physical abuse at the Institute to determine if sexual abuse was performed by their partners. This study shows that complaints are rarely reported by victims of sexual abuse in marital relationships, and in all the cases studied where sexual abuse was verified it was accompanied by other forms of abuse.