Sexual Violence Against Adolescent Girls: Labeling It to Avoid Normalization.
Violence against women is a pervasive complex phenomenon that destroys women's feelings of love, trust, and self-esteem. In this commentary, we specifically focus on sexual violence against adolescent girls, whose impact is particularly harmful since it may lead to impaired mental health, social functioning, and neurodevelopment. Between 12% and 25% of adolescent girls throughout the world experience sexual violence, very often perpetrated by a family member or a friend. Moreover, for an alarming proportion of girls, the first sexual experience is coerced. In this article, we review the multiple negative effects of sexual violence against adolescent girls. We also report data derived from our practice in a public Italian referral Centre for Sexual and Domestic Violence (SVSeD) and address the importance of a multidisciplinary clinical approach with adolescent victims of sexual violence.
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Service for Sexual and Domestic Violence (SVSeD), Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda , Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy .
Giussy
G
Barbara
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Service for Sexual and Domestic Violence (SVSeD), Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda , Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy .|2 Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano , Milan, Italy .
Federica
F
Collini
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Service for Sexual and Domestic Violence (SVSeD), Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda , Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy .|2 Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano , Milan, Italy .
Cristina
C
Cattaneo
3 Faculty of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan , Milan, Italy .
Federica
F
Facchin
4 Unità Operativa Dipartimentale di Ginecologia Chirurgica ed Endometriosi, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico e Università degli Studi di Milano , Milan, Italy .
Paolo
P
Vercellini
5 Health Director, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda , Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy .
Laura
L
Chiappa
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Service for Sexual and Domestic Violence (SVSeD), Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda , Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy .
Alessandra
A
Kustermann
D000293:Adolescent; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D017579:Domestic Violence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
adolescent girls; gender violence; multidisciplinary clinical practice; prevalence of sexual violence