Code red offences on the rise among minors. Growing number of young victims

Code red offences on the rise, younger and younger victims, lack of awareness in the use of smartphones and social media, easy access to increasingly violent pornography. Is this really the world of young people today? And what has changed in the last two years, after the heightened awareness following the feminicide of Giulia Cecchettin on 11 November 2023 and the rapes in Caivano and the Foro Italico in Palermo? On paper it seems very little, but perhaps there are some signs, starting with the increase in the number of reports.

Official data indicate a growth in violence among young people in Italy, with the number of minors between 14 and 17 years old reported and/or arrested rising by 16% in 2024 compared to 2023, over 38,000, the highest figure since at least 2010. The most frequent offences are robbery, theft, malicious wounding and drugs, but there is a jump in the number of minors reported for sexual violence: up 25 per cent between 2023 and 2024 to 432, an increase that comes after the 8.2 per cent increase recorded between 2022 and 2023. Also increasing, according to Istat, is the number of young people, aged between 16 and 24, who suffer sexual violence: in 2014 they accounted for 17.7 per cent, in 2025 30.8 per cent. The national numbers are confirmed by observing some realities, such as Milan and Palermo, where code red crimes committed by minors are on the rise, even in 2025. And crimes characterised by extreme violence are on the rise, as shown by the attack that took place in Milan on 12 October, when five youths - two adults and three minors - stabbed a 22-year-old man.

"The national figure is extremely alarming," explains Claudia Caramanna, prosecutor at the Juvenile Court of Palermo, where in 2024 there were more than twice as many minors arrested as in 2023, and in 2025 there is a further upward trend, even for code red offences. In addition to the Caivano decree, which extended the possibility of arresting minors, various factors, closely related to the growing discomfort of minors, have an impact, Caramanna emphasises. Malaise that affects all social classes, especially in the area of crimes related to gender violence, and which leads to drug abuse and an increase in violence, particularly among males.

According to Caramanna, we need to invest in prevention. 'We cannot intervene only with repressive activities, we need serious and concrete investments in terms of prevention. School and family play a central role,' he adds.

Even in the Milan district, the number of minors arrested or reported remains high, with 4,600 proceedings as at 30 June 2025, a stable number compared to June 2024, which had, however, set a record. In particular," says Luca Villa, prosecutor at the Juvenile Court of Milan, "ill-treatment in the family by the minor against the parent and sexual offences are on the rise. The latter rose from 153 on 30 June 2023 to 230 on 30 June 2025.