
Italy
Italy regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Italy's Criminal Code contains general penalty enhancement and substantive offence provisions. Hate crime data are collected by law enforcement authorities and the Ministry of Interior. Data are not made publicly available.
How hate crime data is collected
Italian legislation does not provide a definition of hate crime. Hate crimes, like all other crimes, are recorded by competent police officers. There is no instruction or policy document to guide police in identifying and recording hate crimes.
Initial crime reports, including victim information and information about police action and legal qualification, are entered into and stored in the Sistema di Indagine (SDI) investigation crime database. The SDI is organized according to different criminal law provisions, which are marked on every report entered into the system. For this reason, the SDI system only serves to register the strands of hate crime mentioned in the law, including ethnicity, nationality, race, religion or crime against national linguistic minorities. There is no specific marker for each bias motivation in the SDI, so crimes cannot be distinguished from one another in the database according to motive. Crimes committed on discriminatory grounds other than those explicitly outlined in the law (e.g., gender identity or sexual orientation) are entered into the SDI as ordinary offences.
A separate system exists for monitoring these additional strands of hate crimes. The Observatory for Security against Discriminatory Acts (OSCAD) collects reports of these crimes. Not all the reports collected by OSCAD are included in the SDI database. In 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between OSCAD and the National Office against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. UNAR and OSCAD exchange information about incidents on this basis. Through this mechanism, UNAR submits to OSCAD hate crime cases reported to its contact centre.
A government unit is responsible for managing the national SDI database, including hate crimes. The Service of the Multi-Agency Information System is part of the Ministry of the Interior's Central Directorate of Criminal Police of the Department of Public Security.
As the SDI does not allow hate crime bias motivations to be distinguished, only aggregated data on all monitored strands of hate crime are available. This aggregate number includes hate crimes committed on the grounds of race/skin colour, ethnicity, origin, minority status, citizenship, language, bias against Roma and Sinti, and bias against religion (including anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Christian and other religions).
Official Data
Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See
Reports
Racism and xenophobia
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Lunaria reported seven people killed, 58 other cases of racist violence targeting immigrants and refugees, and 11 cases in which property was damaged. Lunaria stated that the groups targeted most often included citizens of Bangladesh and Romania. The EveryOne Group documented 51 cases of racist violence against migrants and Roma.read more ›
Bias against Roma and Sinti
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Lunaria reported 20 alleged hate crimes targeting Roma from January to July 2009.read more ›
Anti-Semitism
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The Stephen Roth Institute reported eight violent anti-Semitic incidents.read more ›
Bias against Muslims
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Lunaria reported two incidents against Muslims.read more ›
Bias against other groups - Sexual orientation or gender identity
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Transgender Europe (TGEU) reported the murders of six transgender persons. ILGA-Europe reported three incidents, including one case of assault, an attempted arson attack on a gay club, and one in which fire-crackers were thrown into a crowd. Arcigay reported ten murders, 38 assaults, seven attacks on property associated with LGBT persons and eight threats.read more ›
International reports
Racism and xenophobia
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The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, made a number of recommendations related to addressing racism and xenophobia, and specifically encouraged Italy to improve legislation to combat racist crimes.
Holy See information
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The Holy See reported the desecration of a cemetery.
Key observation
No information is available.