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Internet platform for studying Xenophobia, Radicalism and Problems of Intercultural communication.

Attacks

Attacks

Italy is reluctant to disclose statistics on hate crime. Some statistics are provided by the OSCE and some by non-governmental organizations. Thus, according to the OSCE / ODIHR, in 2013, 472 hate crimes were recorded in Italy. In 2014, according to the same data, this figure rose to 596. Of these, 446 were associated with xenophobia and racism, and the remaining 150 were acts of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or Christianophobia. According to the OSCE in 2015, the country recorded a decline in such crimes - 555 cases were reported. However, NGOs in 2015 give a different figure - 732 cases of hate crime.

At the same time, hate crime trends in 2014-2015 show that the level of violent crimes in this country is substantially lower than the level of common crimes. Moreover, in 2015, there was a decrease in the number of violent crimes with a relatively small increase in non-violent crimes. This suggests that, despite the general growth of xenophobic sentiments, the state bodies have so far managed to keep the situation under control, including through preventive measures against those who incite hatred and enmity.

However, official statistics on hate crime attacks are practically non-existent. According to some estimates, from 40% to 60% of victims of hate crimes do not report them to the authorities, since they do not believe that police will be able to punish the perpetrators. According to polls among the Jewish community showed that only one third of all attacks are reported to the police, as the victims believe the police will not do anything. It is likely that the same situation exists among other minority populations. Therefore, we can only talk about the approximate number of such attacks.

On February 11, 2013 Casa Pound activists broke into an event of an electoral bloc Civil Revolution in Civita Castellana, throwing smoke bombs. On September 1, 2013, four Middle Eastern immigrants were attacked and beaten in Lazise . On October 15 in Milan, a group of 8-10 Moroccans who were sitting in the bar in Milan, having identified Adam Atafu and Mauricio Pina as "Jews" grossly insulted them, and threatened physical violence.

On October 16, 2013 unidentified assailants threw acid at a young Roma woman and her small child in Napoli. Both were taken to hospital with multiple burns . In response, Roma Association in Italy made a statement demanding an end to racial discrimination of Roma. On October 30, Muslim father and son were verbally assaulted on their way home from a prayer service.

Attacks that have been recorded (not taking into account the Tor Sapienza incident) resulted in 2 dead and 35 injured. Most victims (20 people) were participants in clashes between neofascists and antifascists. Lack of official data and reluctance of victims to report such crime means that many incidents remain unreported. For example, members of the Jewish community say that only a third of all attacks are reported to the police, because victims believe that police will not take any action . It is likely that other minorities are in a similar situation. Italian government recognises this problem. UNAR believes that 1400 cases of discrimination reported in 2014 (70% of which were on racial/ethnic grounds) is just a “tip of the iceberg”.

On January 13, 2014 two men attacked a gay couple in Rome . On January 24, four homeless immigrants were attacked in Genoa. On February 8 and March 2, Casa Pound activists attacked their rivals in San Benedetto del Tronto. 6 people were injured.

On March 18, 2014 a 14-year-old teenager from Nigeria was racially assaulted by two of his peers in Casal di Principe (Region of Caserta). The victim was taken to hospital with severe injuries.

On May 3, Napoli FC fans were attacked in Rome. One man died . On May 17, skinheads injured an antifascist activist. On May 23, due to the fact that the library did not possess any copies of the Koran a 24-year-old migrant from Senegal assaulted 2 workers of a public library and destroyed the library in Busalla (Genoa province). On the night from May 28 to 29, a gang of teenagers attacked a group of African immigrants in Scafati.

On June 1, 2014 a 27-year-old antifascist activist was attacked in Turin. On August 23, an Arab man spat in the face of a Jewish man.

On September 5, 2014 Casa Pound activists clashed with antifascists in Lecce . On September 18, a Pakistani man, 28, was murdered in Rome . On October 11, Forza Nuova headquarters in Bari were raided. Four people were injured. On November 16, neo-Nazis in Magliano attacked Ardita FC fans, injuring 7 people. On November 28, four Romani people were attacked in Bologna . On February 26, Forza Nuova organised a demonstration and clashed with Prime Minister’s security during his visit to Treviso . On September 15, Forza Nuova activists broke into a Day of Jewish Culture ceremony in Crotone and displayed a banner, saying “Israel is a bastard state. Freedom for Palestine”. They started handing out pictures of dead Palestinian children. In December 2014, the party organised street patrols against migrant crime in Brescia.

According to data collected by NGOs, 33 attacks were recorded in 2015. On May 19, 2015, it became known about bullying of an African student in Pisan school. On June 4, 2015 two young Italians in Rome attacked a migrant from Romania and cut off his two fingers. On November 12, 2015, there was an attack on a religious Jew in Milan.

In 2017, a total of more than 284 acts of hate violence were detected in Italy. The main regions where such crimes occurred were Lazio (where Rome is located), Lombardy (where Milan is located), Tuscany, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia. An investigation appointed by the Minister of Justice shows that there have been cases of hate crimes throughout the country, but with a different distribution of this type of crime in the north, in the center and in the south. A total of 557 cases of hate crimes are available for 2017.

Obviously, this data does not include those victims who, for various reasons, do not report the crime to authorities. It can also be assumed that the number of hate crimes is higher than the cases handled by the appellate courts. The main reason that these people do not report crimes against them to authorities is that most of these victims are illegal immigrants and they fear that they will be arrested or deported back if they go to the police. In addition, it has not been possible to obtain data on hate crimes from official police websites, and therefore it is also not possible to provide data on these crimes committed by police forces or security personnel in prisons for foreign prisoners.

Hate crime data is not available from official police websites.

Official data, placed on the OSCE website gives a different picture. In 2017, for example, 1,048 hate crimes were recorded by the police, of which 613 were accepted for investigation, of which 40 went to trial.

In 2017, the police recorded 1,048 hate crimes, of which 613 went to trial.

In 2018, the situation changed for the worse. There were 1,111 officially reported crimes. In 2019, 1,119 crimes were recorded by police and in 2020. - 1111 crimes again. The reported cases were hate crimes of ethnicity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, and disability bias. Immigrants and, more generally, foreigners were also a target group, so most known hate crimes involved racism and xenophobia.

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