Women suffering abuse from a partner tend to have patterns of injuries that are different from those seen in victims of other types of assault.
A study in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery suggests that domestic violence results in a higher incidence of eye and cheekbone fractures, and doubles the likelihood of brain injury.
Facial injuries from an unknown assailant were more likely to include a broken jaw. This is likely due to differences in the way the two types of attackers approach their victims, and the motivation for the violence (i.e. the desire to quickly incapacitate vs. the desire to dominate or demean the victim).
The authors hope that this will provide an additional clue to medical providers seeking to identify victims of abuse.
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