Violence against women: 57% more requests for help to the anti-stalking number 1522 in the first 9 months of 2024

The 1522 anti-violence and stalking number of the Presidency of the Council - Department for Equal Opportunities, from 1 January to 30 September 2024 had about 48,000 contacts, including phone calls, apps and chats. An increase of 57% compared to the first 9 months of 2023 (30,581). With the feminicide of Giulia Cecchettin on 11 November 2023 at the end of the year, 1522 reached 51,713 requests as it peaked between November and December with an average of 800 contacts per day. The increase brought about by the emotional wave caused by the death of the young girl became structural in 2024: contacts are constant in every month of the year.

If the trend remains the same in the last quarter of 2024, the estimate is that the annual contacts could almost double compared to the years 2022 and 2021, when they were 32,430 (-10%) and 36,036, respectively. Calling 1522 are mainly women who are victims of violence by their husbands or partners or exes who have not accepted the end of the relationship. The age group that most contacts 1522, as in previous years, is between 35 and 50, although requests from younger women are on the rise. Those who contact 1522 are mainly Italian, followed by women from Eastern Europe and South America, generally settled in Italy for a longer time. While Indian, Pakistani, Bengali and Sri Lankan women contact 1522 in an emergency or on referral from hospitals, teachers or social services.

Another fact that emerges is that violence is often witnessed by children. Also from January to September 2024, another significant finding is the increase in the number of callers seeking information about the services offered by 1522 and anti-violence centres. They also want to make sure that anonymity and privacy are guaranteed. Often they are friends and relatives of the victim of violence they want to help. There has been a considerable increase in contacts after the approval of the Strengthened Red Code, especially for information on the new legal instruments especially on cautioning. There are also an increasing number of requests for economic violence, especially from women over 50, who are now out of the labour market, and from parents who are alarmed about their underage daughters being subjected to violence by their peers.

"The increase in calls to the 1522 number, if on the one hand it must worry us because it photographs the extent of a phenomenon that represents a real emergency, on the other hand it is a positive sign. It means that awareness of the number that the Equal Opportunities Department of the Presidency of the Council makes available to women victims of violence and stalking is spreading, and it means that women are getting the message that we are trying in every way to convey to them: you are not alone, the State is at your side". This was stated by Family and Equal Opportunities Minister Eugenia Roccella, commenting on the latest data on the 1522 number. 'The correspondence of the data to the policies put in place,' adds the minister, 'encourages us to move forward: the slight drop in feminicides to date, with 12 per cent fewer women killed by their partners or ex-partners than last year, can also be considered an effect of the new regulations that have been widely applied throughout the territory; the 5 per cent increase in anti-violence centres in the last two years follows the increase in funds that the government has almost doubled since it took office; and the use of 1522 also means that this tool is increasingly well known and that the dissemination campaigns have had an impact".