Sexual Violence: 10 Years of Case Studies in a Hospital in Northern Italy

Abstract

Background: In the past twenty years, the fight against sexual violence has become a common goal of the entire European Union, due to a greater socio-cultural awareness of the population and the need to create guidelines for common action. Italian Law no. 66 of February 15, 1996 regarding the “Rules against sexual violence” which, with the appropriate amendments, is still in force today, defines 3 types of sexual offenses through the articles 609 of the Penal Code.
 Design and Methods: This study analyzes the cases relating to one of the hospitals in Northern Italy, during the decade January 2010 - December 2019, relating to suspected/reported cases of sexual violence, group sexual violence and sexual acts with minors. This study was carried out by acquiring information relating to subjects who had been victims of a sexual crime through the analysis of the consultations drawn up by specialist medical staff in the submentioned hospital. These consultations are defined by specific medical protocols that must be activated every time a victim of a suspected sexual offense comes into the Emergency Room (ER). The data were processed with descriptive analyzes, the qualitative variables were synthesized with absolute and percentage frequencies, while the quantitative variables with mean and interpolation of the data, to identify a trend line. In order to hypothesize the possible future trend of the phenomenon, data were collected relating to the type of crime according to the Penal Code, gender and age of the victim. This article also outlines future directions for improving research.
 Results: Our data show that females, of any age, are the most affected in all sexual crimes, often share home with their aggressor, usually a man, and in most cases, they come to the medical observation without any lesion on their body.
 Conclusions: In order to provide a global vision of the situation and of the diffusion throughout the territory, studies like this one could be carried out in various Italian provinces. Besides, we hope that the high degree of commitment on the part of society and institutions in combating sexual violence, through information campaigns and incitements to report, will lead in a few years to a reduction in the number of victims of repeated violence (especially in family contexts) and, consequently, also in the total number of acts of violence that comes to the attention of the healthcare facilities. Finally, primary prevention of sexual violence must begin early because a substantial portion is experienced at a young age. It will be necessary to prevent these forms of violence with strategies that address known risk factors for perpetration (e.g., low family support, high poverty, low parental education, absent or single parenting, parental substance abuse, domestic violence, low caregiver warmth), by changing social norms and behaviors and by identifying protective factors that could be strengthened.

Sexual Harassments Related to Alcohol and Drugs Intake: The Experience of the Rape Centre of Turin

“…In our sample the consumption of alcohol and drugs declared at the time of the medical examination is almost comparable to that of drugs alone, unlike what was reported by Maghin [ 22 ]; on the other hand, the consumption of alcohol alone appears to be two and a half times that of the other two conditions. Alcohol intake associated with sexual violence has been described by several authors [ 7 , 33 , 34 , 35 ], especially among younger victims (16–24 years) [ 36 ].…”

“…Unlike other studies [ 25 , 26 ] that describe in depth only anogenital lesions, while physical signs in other body areas are classified as serious, moderate, or minor, our work classifies injuries according to the localization, the number of injured sites (single or multiple), the type of injury (contusion, stabbing or firearm), and the substance intake (alcohol or drugs). In our sample, physicians observed external lesions on 70.3% of women; this value is higher than what was described in sexual violence events in Norway by Hagemann (66.5%) in 2011 [ 25 ] and in two different studies published in 2021 related to Lombardy region (North-Centre Italy) by Maghin (61%) [ 22 ] and by Torazzi (respectively 44.9% in adolescent girls and 52.1 in adult women) [ 24 ], but less than was observed in Denmark by Ingemann-Hansen (78%) [ 23 ].…”

“…Moreover, such attention must be considered especially within the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, because in more than half of the cases the aggressor was the partner or a known person and the violence occurred in most cases in a private home, as frequently described in the literature [ 1 , 2 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…On the contrary, we found no significant correlation between having consumed drugs and having obtained a positive result in toxicological analysis, a result that may have been influenced by the higher time elapsed between the intake and medical examination in these survivors. In this scenario, it is fundamental not to forget the forensic role of the health personnel in taking not only the toxicological samples but also in sampling biological material for forensic genetics analysis [ 40 , 41 , 42 ] and in documenting all body injuries [ 4 , 22 ]. Healthcare personnel must therefore be aware of the time windows [ 7 , 21 , 38 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] within which the tests can guarantee a correct degree of reliability: the blood matrix can be evaluated within 48 h of the presumed event, while the urine can guarantee reliable results up to 5 days later.…”

“…About the disclosure to the judicial authority, the study underlines how the health staff is informed and prepared on the need to file ex officio denunciation in cases of sexual violence in which the assumption of substances is declared or suspected, substances that may affect the ability to understand and the will of the victim, as emerges also in Maghin’s study for sexual violence against adult women [ 22 ]. On the other hand, in line with what was reported in 2015 by ISTAT, women refer to the Judicial Authority with reticence: only 20% of our sample filed a complaint and violence is still seen as something to be ashamed of [ 19 ].…”