Il peso delle parole nelle sentenze: note a margine di una importante pronuncia della Corte EDU in tema di vittimizzazione secondaria (J.L. c. Italia, ricorso n. 5671/16)

This work examines the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case J.L. v. Italy, through which the Italian State has been condemned for the violation of the conventional constraints arising from Article 8 ECHR, related to the respect of the applicant’s privacy. The case brought before the national authorities dealt with the alleged group rape which took place in Florence in the summer of 2008. The criminal proceedings against the accused ended with a verdict of acquittal by the Court of Appeal of Florence, which in its reasons assigned particular importance to the family status of the woman, her sexual orientation, the clothing worn that night, or the artistic choices made by the victim in the past. The European Court viewed this justification as discriminatory and held that such considerations are completely out of place, and therefore, they breach the applicant’s fundamental rights, guaranteed by the Convention. This ruling is relevant from the point of view of the so-called secondary victimization, which emerges here due to the use of stereotypes connected to female victims of sexual violence. As such, the Author argues that the discriminatory evaluations of the Court of Appeal of Florence could be also assessed within the framework of the disciplinary procedure at national level. This would make the fight against this “secondary” type of violence more effective, which de facto creates obstacles to the timely interruption of the so-called cycle of violence, in which many women are still involved.