Alarming figures on femicide in the latest police report. 88 acts of violence against women per day, mostly committed by those who hold the keys to the home where the victim lives. A cultural phenomenon to be defeated above all through prevention and education.
Despite all the legal measures and intervention tools introduced in recent years, including the femicide law and the so-called Codice rosso, too many women continue to fall victim to violence. And the most alarming aspect is that the perpetrators are, far too often, the very people who claim to love them: in more than eight cases out of ten, the person who commits violence against a woman is someone who lives with her or who holds the keys to her home.
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This is stated in a report published by the State Police, which forms part of the prevention project Questo non è amore and which comes a few days ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to be observed on Monday 25 November. According to police data, it is clear that female victims have increased over time, rising from 68 per cent of the total domestic violence cases in around 2016 to 71 per cent in 2019. This figure could also be read in a positive light: greater awareness of the crimes suffered, a renewed tendency and willingness to report what has happened, as the number of victims who regard acts of violence as a crime has grown.
It is true, however, that the figures in absolute terms remain very high: in Italy, 88 times a day — once every 15 minutes — an act of violence against a woman occurs, whether in the form of domestic abuse, assault, sexual violence or stalking. The police report also helps to dismantle some rather entrenched stereotypes: that gender-based violence is more frequent in the South than in the North ("the incidence per 100,000 female inhabitants shows the same values in Piedmont and in Sicily," the report states), and that foreigners are more violent than Italians: the alleged perpetrators of this type of crime are predominantly of Italian origin, and whereas in 2018 they accounted for 73 per cent of individuals reported to the judicial authorities by law enforcement, in 2019 that figure rises to 74 per cent.
The former partner is identified by the victim as the alleged perpetrator of stalking acts in 60 per cent of cases: it is for this reason that, in recent years, the term femicide has come into widespread use, to describe the phenomenon of women killed for having challenged their assigned role: the woman is killed as a woman — either because she is not the woman society would have her be, or out of a warped sense of possession, an inability to accept a separation, uncontrollable jealousy even after divorce, or a refusal to accept a new relationship.
It is precisely for this reason that, in recent years, efforts have been made to tackle the problem not only at a repressive level, but also through prevention and cultural change: aimed at men, obviously, but also at protecting women who, as Police Chief Franco Gabrielli explains, "once they have been victims of violence, feel alone, feel ashamed, are afraid of reprisals against themselves and their children, believe they are to blame, fear they will not be believed, fear they will be judged."
According to the police, the warning order has proved particularly effective so far: it is issued when a report of violence that has not been filed by the victim reaches the police headquarters from a person outside the family unit. In 2018, the reoffending rate among those issued with a warning order for stalking stands at 20 per cent, while it rises to 30 per cent for those warned for domestic violence. There are also programmes for individuals subject to warning orders, aimed at treating violent men: the Protocollo Zeus, signed in 2018 by the Anti-Crime Division of the Milan police headquarters and the Centro italiano per la promozione e la mediazione, involved 80 per cent of those issued with warning orders during its first year, with a clear positive outcome: only 10 per cent of the individuals went on to engage in further conduct after the warning.
