Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul Convention

• Author: Renga, Simonetta
• Pages: 82-85

82

10Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul

Convention

10.1General (legal) context

10.1.1Surveys and reports on issues of violence against women and domestic violence

One of the objectives of the ‘Extraordinary plan against violence’ provided under Article 5

of Decree No. 93/2013 is to provide for annual data collection on cases of all forms of

violence, including a map of specialist support services. The decree also provides for

coordination of the existing data collection (Paragraph 2 of Article 5). So far, data collection

on all forms of violence has been made available by ISTAT, the National Institute for

Statistics. The ISTAT datasets are available to the public.

The latest collection of data on violence against women was led by ISTAT in cooperation

with the Department of Equal Opportunities and dates back to 2014.According to the

survey, 6 788 000 women have been victims of some form of violence, either physical or

sexual, during their life, that is 31.5 % of women aged 16-70: 20.2 % havebeen the

victim of physical violence; 21 % of sexual violence; and 5.4 % of the most serious forms

of sexual violence such as rape and attempted rape. Furthermore, foreign women are

victims of sexual or physical violence on a similar scale to Italian women. However,

physical violence is experienced more frequentlyby foreign women, while sexual violence

is more commonly experienced by Italian women. Current and former partners of victims

are those who commit the most serious crimes: 62.7 % of rapes are committed by the

current or the former partner, while in the majority of cases of sexual harassment, the

perpetrators are unknown (76.8 %). As to the age of the victim, 10.6 % of women have

been victims of sexual violence prior to the age of 16. The rate of children witnessing

violence against women in cases has increasedto 65.2 % (compared to the 2006 figure

of 60.3 %). Women who are separated or divorced are far more exposed to physical or

sexual violence (51.4 % as compared to 31.5 % relating to all other cases). The situation

of women with disabilities or illnesses remains a great concern: 36 % of women with bad

health conditions and 36.6 % of those with serious limitations have been victims of

physical or sexual violence. The risk of being exposed to rape or attempted rape doubles

compared to women without any health problems (10 % compared to 4.7 %). However,

compared to 2006, the number of sexual and physical violence cases has decreased from

13.3 % to 11.3 %. This is the result of an increased awareness by women of existing

protection tools and public opinion in general, in addition to an overall social climate of

condemnation and no tolerance for such crimes. Women are far more aware that they

have survived a crime (from 14.3 % to 29.6 % in case of violence by the partner) and the

violence is reported far more often to the police (up from 6.7 % to 11.8 %). Victims are

increasingly likely to talk about the violence with someone (up from 67.8 % to 75.9 %)

and look for professional help (up from 2.4 % to 4.9 %). The same applies in the event of

violence by a non-partner. Compared to the 2006 figures, survivors are far more satisfied

with the relevant work carried out by the police.

The improved data are certainly linked to the enactment of Decree No. 93/2013

implementing the Istanbul Convention. Conversely, negative results emerge in relation to

cases of rape or attempted rape. The forms of such violence are far more serious and

there has been an increase in the number of victims with injuries (from 26.3 % to 40.2 %

in cases when the partner is the perpetrator); and an increase in the number of women

who fearedthat their life was in danger (from 18.8 % in 2006 to 34.5 % in 2014). The

forms of violence inflicted by anon-partner are also more serious: 3 466 000 women

(16.1 %) have been victims of stalking during their lifetime, of whom 1 524000 have

been stalked by their former partner and 2 229 000 by a person other than a former

partner.