Young people and violence, 76% of rape victims are under 34 years old

76% of victims of sexual violence are under 34 years of age. That committed against very young women between 14 and 17 years of age is increasing. And it is in the family and emotional sphere that most murders of young women take place, largely at the hands of their partner or ex-partner. Dispelling any doubts about the 'gender' connotation of male violence - i.e., acted out on women because they are women - are data from the new report 'Young people and gender-based violence. From data analysis to the perception of the phenomenon by the younger generations' by the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police, an inter-force articulation of the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior, presented today in Rome. Which also confirms the boom in calls to the national anti-violence number 1522, particularly after the feminicide of Giulia Cecchettin: in 2023 there were 70,861 calls, including 51,713 'valid' ones, +59% compared to 2022 and +143% compared to 2019.

The report starts with data on 'spy crimes', those that set off alarm bells. The first is stalking: women up to the age of 34 in 2023 account for 34% of the total number of victims of stalking (among them, the 25-34 age group accounts for 61%), 86% Italian. Stalking offenders up to 34 years of age are 20% of the total, 90% male, 72% Italian and concentrated (70%) in the 25-34 age group. Also in the case of the crime of ill-treatment against family members and cohabitants, female victims up to 34 years of age are 34% of the total (56% are between 25 and 34, 23% between 18 and 24) and 68% are Italian. Known perpetrators aged 14 to 34 are 25% of the total, 94% male and mainly (72%) aged 25 to 34.

For sexual violence, victims between 0 and 34 years of age become predominant: they are 76% of the total (out of a total incidence of female victims of 91%). Among very young girls, unfortunately, the phenomenon is growing: the group of girls between 14-17 years of age who suffer it rises from 24% in 2020 to 27% in 2023. Foreign perpetrators reach the highest percentage for this crime: 59%. Group sexual violence also increases, particularly among girls. Victims aged 0-34 years are 73% of the total in 2023 (female victims in 2023 as a whole are 85%): for 25-34 year olds it is from 9% in 2020 to 15% in 2023, for 18-24 year olds from 44% to 47%, for 14-17 year olds it is from 44% to 28%, but victims up to 13 years of age rise from 4% to 10%. Foreign victims are 28%, perpetrators between 14 and 34 years of age are 65%, evenly distributed between Italians and foreigners, but the 14-17 age group exceeds 25%. Even in the case of revenge porn, girls under 34 make up 67% of the total number of female victims in 2023.

Homicides with victims under 34 in 2023 grew by 18%, from 83 to 98 (+18%), while the number of female victims decreased slightly, from 22 to 21 (-5%). The total incidence of young people killed stands at 21 per cent, but remains at 67 per cent - 'a high figure that has remained substantially constant over the years', the report emphasises - if we look at crimes committed within the family or emotional sphere (down slightly from 32 to 27, -16 per cent, and for women from 19 to 18, -5 per cent). In 2023, the number of homicides committed by a partner or ex-partner (14 cases), all with female victims, is on the rise; while the number of homicides committed by a parent or child (7 cases), where in 3 cases the victims are female, is decreasing.

The difference between homicides committed in general and those committed in the family and affective sphere is obvious: with reference to the overall data, the incidence of female victims decreases, progressively and considerably, as age increases; in the family-affective sphere, on the other hand, the incidence of female victims (which remains constantly high: equal to or above 40%), grows in parallel with the increase in age, reaching its peak with 86% for the 18- to 24-year-old bracket, only to decline marginally for the next bracket (25-34 years old), which records the still high incidence of 69%. This indicates", says the Criminal Police, "how it is in the family-affective sphere that the majority of homicides of young women occur, and how the causes of the events change: girls and young women, in the period under review, were killed exclusively by their parents, while, for young women over 18, almost all the events occurred at the hands of their partner or ex-partner". In 83% of the cases, those between 18 and 24 years old and 100% of those between 25 and 34 years old. Killed by those who say they love them. Among the perpetrators, 4% were between 14 and 17 years old at the time of the crime, 13% between 18 and 24 years old and 39% between 25 and 34 years old.