Violence against women. In 2022 fewer feminicides in Italy: prevention is growing

“We cannot ignore the cry of women victims of violence.” These are the words of Pope Francis to open the 2022 edition of the “This is not love” awareness campaign promoted by the State Police to counter femicide phenomena. According to the Pontiff, the various forms of abuse that many women suffer are “a cowardice and a degradation for all of humanity”. He is addressed to them, in first, the campaign information booklet with facts, stories and useful numbers to defend. Protect yourself from those who mistreat youbut also from fear of being judgedfrom the ashamed to tell the violence suffered or from fear of being alone.

A few days from November 25, International day for the elimination of violence against women, the State Police wants to reaffirm its commitment to their side. The goal remains to stem the phenomenon, intervening “before it’s too late,” said the Chief of Police, Director General of Public Security, Lambert Giannini, on the occasion of the presentation (last Saturday, in Pietra Ligure) of the 2022 edition of the information report. «Continuous investment in the training of all operators», added Giannini, makes it possible to «intercept the conditions of suffering of women and their children in order to be able to implement all the intervention tools available».

Violence data in 2022

Feminicide is the apex of the spiral of violence that often feeds itself in the same domestic environment. But before I lose my life, I am 86 women who are victims of crimes every day in Italy: a number four times higher than the male victims. Furthermore, in 35% of cases the episodes of mistreatmentfrom sexual assault and of stalking occur at the hands of one’s partner.

In the first six months of 2022 there were 61 women victims of voluntary homicides. Of these, 34% (equal to 21 women) are definable feminicides understood, according to the Instanbul Convention, as homicides in which the victims are “women killed as women”, because they have questioned their role in society or in the family. 38% of the victims had young children. While, as far as the offender is concerned, it is the husband or partner in 56% of cases, the child or parent (19%), the ex-husband (13%), the boyfriend or ex-partner (12%).

The warnings of the Police Headquarters are increasing

Compared to the first half of 2021, femicides in Italy decreased by 26.1%. The data is not only heartening (as much as it may be), but it is significant because during the same period (January-June 2022) warnings have increased. This is the “administrative measure that gives the Quaestor the power to quickly affect the dangerousness of people who act in situations of domestic violence or persecutory acts”, explains the Prefect Francis Messina, director of the State Police’s Anti-Crime Central. According to the data, in the first six months of 2022, warnings for domestic violence doubled and, in 70% of cases, the cautioned person was a partner or ex-partner. From 2020 to today, then, there have been over 7,500 subjects who have been notified of the warning for domestic violence or for persecutory acts. And only one of these subsequently committed femicide, demonstrating that the preventive measure plays a decisive role in stopping the cycle of violence.

This occurs above all in the 54 Police Headquarters (47% of the total) where the Zeus protocol which allows, after the notification of the warning, to offer the recipient the opportunity to embark on a recovery path, aimed at making the interested party mature in the awareness of the negative value of his own behavior through the help of the professionals of the Centers dedicated to perpetrators of violent or persecutory behaviour. Furthermore, some of these protocols provide additional prevention tools that allow for early intervention on situations considered more dangerous. In such cases, in fact, the Anti-Crime Divisions of the Police Headquarters and Centers for the recovery of abusers can carry out a joint monitoring of the data subject to then put the police forces in a position to take the necessary initiatives to prevent the commission of serious crimes, such as special surveillance of public safety or the activation of specific surveillance services for women in danger.