Orofacial Injuries in Women Victims of Domestic Violence: Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

The issue domestic violence against women has become becoming more visible in our society, not choosing social class, age, ethnicity or educational level. There are numerous cases of violence against women met in forensic services, most of them consisting of lesions produced by forceful action. The objetive of this article i to investigate the occurrence of orofacial injuries in female victims of domestic violence, it places the most commonly affected body and the offender profile. This is an integrative literature obtained through databases SCIELO, LILACS, PubMed, Medline, and Bireme, covering national and international studies conducted in the period from 1993 to 2013 publications. The keywords used were: violence against women, domestic violence, orofacial injuries and maxillo-facial trauma in the period between 2011 and 2013. It was observed that the progressive increase in violence against women have become the target of several investigations, and the biggest offender in most cases is the partner/spouse or ex-partner, and the most affected area is the face, because besides the painful symptoms felt, there is aesthetic involvement , which will also affect the victim psychologically. The profile shows women victims, mostly women from the periphery of the city, presenting injuries or Blunt - Blunt cut in regions of the lips, eyelids and orbits without compromising function or permanent weakness. For the foregoing, combating violence against women requires the integration of numerous political, legal, and especially cultural factors for violence is eradicated from society. It is noteworthy that both the clinicians and the expert have responsibilities in the analyzes of lesions maxillo-facial where a mistake at any stage of the evaluation of lesions (clinical or forensic) may unfairly reflect the application of criminal punishment. Thus, it is believed that the study about violence against women joins a new concept of prevention, recognizing the compromised ones with sociability key part to re-establish a new family life.