[Perpetrators and victims of sexual violence]

Shaped by culture and education, human sexuality is organised around the principle of mutual consent, and other limits fixed by the law, between partners in emotional exchanges and sexual relationships. When this is not the case, complex issues of sexual violence, inflicted and suffered, arise. Certain health professionals then become involved, working either with the perpetrator and/or the victims of this violence. The care can be complicated because these professionals do not know the reality of the situations described. Caution and a critical distance must therefore accompany their assessments and their clinical actions.