ObjectivesOur subject is studying the historic, epidemiological, clinical and psychopathological relations between sexual assaults and self-cuttings in adolescence. The self-cuttings represent a frequent behavior during adolescence. It's frequently associated with multiple comorbidities. Their apprehension is difficult. On the other hand, a case of sexual assault risks to disturbing the mental development. From our practice, the relation with an episode of sexual assault during childhood or during adolescence does not seem uncommon. Materials and methodsWe have carried out a systematic and international literature review with Medline, Sciencedirect, Cairn Info and Google Scholar with browsing of reference books on the issue of self-cutting, sexual assault, adolescence, victimology and psychological damages. ResultsThe relation between sexual assaults and self-cuttings has been studied for more than one century in the medical literature. The contemporary epidemiological studies materialize a significant link between these two phenomena. Sexual assaults have been found in the story of teenagers with self-cutting issues between 46% and 96% of cases according the studies. The female population is at the same time prevalent in the context of self-cutting and prevalent in the context of sexual assault. The link seems more important when the aggression is a rape, when the subjects shows psychological troubles, a borderline personality, dissociation disorders, alexithymia, low self-esteem and when the family context proves to be dysfunctional. In a context of sexual assault, self-cutting is relatively typical, nonpsychotic, superficial, save the face but concerns sexual zones, in particular female zones for young women (breasts, stomach and thighs). Adolescence consists in a period of “deferred action” (according of the Freud's concept) in the case of sexual violence during childhood. The importance of the skin for this age period, its echo with the identity axis, correlated to impulsiveness, the tendency to the recourse to act at this age of the life, favor self-cuttings. On the other hand, the victims of sexual violence present a psychological suffering. This one corresponds to various psychiatric disorders which favor the appearance of self-cuttings: Borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, depression and anxious disorder. Then, a family characterized by incest or excess of violence risks to favor self-cuttings by default of safety and attachment. To finish, our psychopathological analysis proposes psychodynamic hypotheses with the goal to understand better the function of self-cuttings in a context of sexual assault: Difficulties in verbalization, substitution of a moral pain, reduction in tensions and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, expression of a narcissistic disorder or a guilt (punish self), relational dimension (show a need for help), attempt to control his own body and identification to the aggressor. ConclusionThis work incites every practitioner to look for systematics a history of sexual assault for any patient who resorts to self-cutting. This literature review allows understanding better the clinical links between sexual assault and self-cutting. We hope that this article facilitate the care and the reconstruction of the victims.