28% of complaints come from the South. One third of crimes in Campania

Numbers in hand, out of 2.34 million crimes 'emerged' in 2023, 28% were detected by the police forces in the regions of Southern Italy. In all, about 660 thousand crimes recorded in twelve months, about a third of which in Campania (217 thousand), an increase of 0.4% over 2022 but down 1.8% compared to 2019 and 5% compared to 2018. This is the weight of complaints coming from the South on the total number of complaints recorded by the inter-force database of the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior on a national scale. About 34% of the Italian population resides in the South and the average number of reported offences is 3,330 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The territorial data were analysed by Il Sole 24 Ore to elaborate the Crime Index, published on 16 September. On a national level, the provinces with the highest number of complaints per 100,000 inhabitants are Milan (7,093 per 100,000 inhabitants), Rome (6,071 complaints per 100,000 inhabitants) and Florence. More generally, slightly less than one complaint out of three in 2023 was filed in the capitals of the 14 metropolitan cities: the presence of visitors and city users, who often become the target of predatory crimes, such as thefts or robberies, plays a key role in the frequency of offences, adding to the statistics. In this context, the first southern province encountered when scrolling down the index is Naples (12th place) with 4,578 complaints per 100,000 residents. It is followed by Palermo (21st place) with 4,010 complaints, Foggia (23rd place), Catania (24th place) and Siracusa (25th place).

On the other hand, the provinces of Oristano (1,511 per 100,000) and Potenza (1,935 per 100,000) have the lowest incidence of registered complaints in relation to the resident population.

The results of the Crime Index must, however, be put into context. Complaints take a snapshot of the crime present in an area, but do not detect the so-called 'submerged number' of offences, which is impossible to estimate and is represented by all those crimes - mostly those that cannot be prosecuted ex officio - that are not reported for various reasons (e.g. because they are minor or for fear of retaliation, and so on) or are not detected by the police. The greater or lesser presence of the police authorities on the territory, in fact, can certainly influence the figure, as can the greater or lesser inclination (and therefore trust) of the citizenry towards the institutions. This is why, therefore, the lower incidence of complaints in southern Italy cannot be read solely as a positive fact.

The analysis of reports by type of crime also allows us to make some further considerations on the type of crime reported in the southern regions. Some southern provinces stand out in particular for the incidence, again in relation to inhabitants, of certain types of crime: Naples ranks first in smuggling, with 270 reports in 2023, and in counterfeiting of trademarks and industrial products, with 898 offences detected; the metropolitan city of the Campania capital also ranks fourth (after Milan, Florence and Rome) in snatching thefts, with 55 episodes per 100,000 inhabitants; Matera, Cosenza and Crotone are in the lead in the number of fires, with over 540 reports last year; Caltanissetta and Foggia stand out negatively for damage, a type of crime for which only southern provinces are in the first 25 positions; Barletta-Andria-Trani, Naples and Foggia occupy the sad podium for car thefts; Ragusa is the province with the most moped thefts and Palermo the most motorbike thefts; Caltanissetta is first for the number of complaints of threats per 100 thousand inhabitants.