Just in the past month 17 rape victims have gone to the hospital for assistance. St. Olav's has had 71 women rape victims so far this year, already well over the total of 56 for all of 2004, newspaper Adresseavisen reports.
South-Trøndelag County police can confirm the trend. So far there have been twice as many rapes and attempted rapes reported this year, compared to 2004.
Psychiatric nurse Eva Aagaard at the hospital's rape reception center cannot explain the enormous increase, and has not noted any pattern.
"The past month has been very unusual," Aagaard told Adresseavisen, and offered the hypothesis that part of the explanation could be that more victims are daring to tell their story.
"We want more women who have been victims of rape to know that they can come to us. We do not require that they bring charges in order to get help from us," Aagaard said.
