ABSTRACT
Hospital staff, in the case of rape victims, have two duties. They must provide medical care and collect legal evidence. The hospital is expected to give care nonjudgmentally to all patients. Staff are expected to make medical judgments, but to remain nonjudgmental in the moral sense. Decisions about treatment are supposed to be made without reference to whether the patient is rich or poor, with or without good moral character. The duty of hospital staff to collect evidence to be used in proceedings in the criminal justice system is extraneous to medical treatment per se. The overt treatment of victims by hospital staff may be evenhanded, but the behind-the-scenes conversation is filled with judgmental statements. Preadult rape victims frequently mentioned the issues of whether they wanted to be at the hospital and the style of the staff. Some victims who quickly see the dangers arrive at the hospital with a clear-cut request for medical care.
