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 in Italy

How hate crime data is collected in Italy

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. OSCAD can also receive reports from civil society organizations (CSOs) working with victims of hate crimes. These reports do not replace police reports but OSCAD can further facilitate contact between the reporting organization and the relevant police office or other institution.

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).

Similarly to the SDI, there is no option for prosecutors to flag hate crimes in the relevant casefile management system. It is only possible to detect hate crimes by referring to a particular criminal provision and/or aggravating circumstances (general penalty enhancement) provision. The Ministry of Justice is competent for collecting criminal data registered at ordinary courts, through the General Directorate for Statistics and Organizational Analysis of the Department for Judicial Organization of Staff and Services. Data relating to people under investigation for hate crimes with a request for closure or being brought to trial are dealt with by the National Statistics Institute (ISTAT).

Access more information at the Legislation Online website Legislationline TANDIS Access more information at the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS) website

OFFICIAL DATA

Year Hate crimes recorded by police Prosecuted Sentenced
2020 1111 Not available Not available
2019 1119 - -
2018 1111 613 46
2017 1048 613 40
2016 736 424 31
2015 555 Not available Not available
2014 596 Not available Not available
2013 472 Not available Not available
2012 71 Not available 10
2011 68 31 19
2010 56 Not available 60
2009 134 Not available Not available

About 2009 Data

    Figures include crimes of incitement to hatred and those involving insults.

Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See

Reports

Anti-Semitic hate crime

The Stephen Roth Institute reported eight violent anti-Semitic incidents.

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Anti-Muslim hate crime

Lunaria reported two incidents against Muslims.

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Anti-LGBTI hate crime

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.

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Hate crime against Christians and members of other religions

The Holy See reported the desecration of a cemetery.

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Racist and xenophobic hate crime

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.

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Anti-Roma hate crime

 Lunaria reported 20 alleged hate crimes targeting Roma from January to July 2009.

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INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

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.

KEY OBSERVATION

No information is available.