Law-and-order headlines collide with prevention gaps as killings persist. Critics say tougher penalties won’t save lives without funding, data and education.

Italy closed 2024 with triple‑digit feminicides and entered 2025 to fresh outrage. Police figures show 113 women were killed last year, 99 in family or intimate‑partner contexts and 61 by a current or former partner. By early April this year, the murder of two 22‑year‑old students prompted rallies across campuses and city squares. The public shock has been met by new legislative initiatives from the government — and a chorus of critics who argue that Italy still lacks the infrastructure to prevent violence before it turns lethal.

A widely repeated claim on social media is that Italy now has the highest feminicide rate in the European Union. Comparable, per‑capita data do not bear this out. EU‑wide administrative data indicate that the average rate of women killed by an intimate partner or family member was about four per million women in 2023. Italy’s overall homicide levels are among the EU’s lowest, and available studies and Eurostat‑compatible datasets place Italy below or around the EU average for female homicides by population. But raw numbers still cut deep: in a country of 59 million, more than a hundred women are killed each year — almost always by someone they knew. The paradox is that Italy can simultaneously be a ‘low‑homicide’ society and yet face a stubborn emergency of killings of women.

The Meloni government’s answer has been primarily punitive. On 7 March 2025, the cabinet approved a bill to create a standalone crime of ‘feminicide,’ with life imprisonment as the maximum penalty and tougher sentences for stalking, sexual violence and so‑called ‘revenge porn.’ On 23 July, the Senate passed the text unanimously; as of late August, it is before the Chamber of Deputies. Officials present the move as a necessary message of zero tolerance. Opposition lawmakers and women’s rights groups counter that the bill risks becoming symbolism unless it is paired with steady funding for shelters, rapid‑response risk assessment, and prevention programmes in schools.

Those critiques build on a longer record. In late 2023, Parliament converted an anti‑violence decree into law that tightened precautionary measures and increased penalties when offenders had already been warned to halt domestic abuse. The government says it has raised resources for the national fund supporting anti‑violence centres and made permanent a ‘freedom income’ stipend for victims leaving abusive situations. Yet Italy’s own civil‑society ‘shadow’ reporting to the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention monitors highlights persistent problems: delays in transferring funds to the regions, uneven coverage of shelters, gaps in data collection and training, and limited long‑term housing and job pathways for survivors.

The 2024 numbers make the gap between law and outcomes stark. Police criminal‑analysis reports count 113 women killed, down slightly from 2023 but still overwhelmingly at the hands of partners or relatives. Despite the intense media focus after the 2023 murder of university student Giulia Cecchettin, advocates say the system remains better at reacting than preventing. Emergency restraining orders and electronic monitoring exist on paper, but risk assessment can be inconsistent from one province to another; many complain that ‘warnings’ are not matched with proactive checks, and that perpetrators’ behaviour‑change programmes are still an afterthought.

Universities have become a flashpoint in 2025. Following two campus‑linked killings in spring, rectors and student groups demanded a ‘cultural rebellion,’ calling for compulsory consent education, bystander‑intervention training and protocols linking campus services with local anti‑violence networks. Some regions are piloting such modules, but there is no national framework yet — another example, critics say, of Italy’s patchwork approach.

The upcoming ‘feminicide’ statute has divided legal scholars. Supporters argue that naming the crime will push police and prosecutors to recognise misogyny‑driven motives and to collect evidence of control, coercion and prior threats. Sceptics warn that special labelling brings little added value compared to existing murder statutes with aggravating circumstances, and could even complicate trials by forcing courts to prove a motive that is too narrowly defined. For now, the Senate’s text gestures toward a broad definition, covering killings motivated by domination, control, discrimination or the victim’s refusal to start or continue a relationship, and ties the offence to the harshest penalties in the code.

Policy, however, lives or dies in implementation. On the prevention side, Italy still lacks a stable, multi‑year funding mechanism that reaches local services on time; anti‑violence centres say they plan staffing year to year, unable to guarantee continuity. On protection, the most basic questions are unresolved: Who is accountable for repeated risk‑assessment updates when a woman changes city? Who triggers electronic monitoring and how quickly? On prosecution, women’s groups report uneven enforcement of restraining orders and a shortage of specialised training for police, prosecutors and judges outside major urban hubs.

The international context is equally sobering. UN estimates show that 51,100 women and girls were killed by an intimate partner or family member worldwide in 2023 — roughly 140 every day — and Western Europe is not immune. The Council of Europe’s GREVIO mechanism is now taking a closer look at whether Italy can ‘build trust by delivering support, protection and justice.’ Trust, survivors say, is what frays first when police dismiss stalking as ‘romance gone wrong’ or when a woman loses her place in a shelter because a regional transfer stalled.

What would it take to bend the curve? Experts interviewed by this newspaper point to a short list: predictable multi‑year funding for shelters and outreach; a single national risk‑assessment protocol applied uniformly by law enforcement; immediate, court‑ordered behavioural programmes for perpetrators alongside victim protection orders; comprehensive consent and relationship education from middle school through university; stronger labour‑market and housing support so leaving is economically viable; and a data system that tracks cases across jurisdictions while protecting privacy. Punishment matters, they add — but it is usually too late.

The political stakes are real. Giorgia Meloni is Italy’s first woman to serve as prime minister. Her government can credibly point to tougher laws and new spending lines. But in the cities where candles flicker for yet another victim, these announcements ring hollow unless they translate into a faster police response at 2 a.m., a guaranteed bed the next day, and a pathway to independence the week after. Italy may not top the EU league tables on feminicide rates. That is a low bar, and no comfort at all to the families who are waiting for the state to act before the next funeral, not after.

Sources

• Italian Police Criminal Analysis Service, annual report: 113 women killed in 2024; 99 in family/affective contexts; 61 by partner/ex.

• Eurostat, Crime statistics (2025 update): EU rate ~4.1 female victims of family/intimate‑partner homicide per million women in 2023.

• European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Italy ‘Violence’ domain and country profile.

• AP News, 8 Mar 2025: Italian cabinet approves draft law defining ‘femicide’; tougher penalties for related crimes.

• Italian Senate plenary, 23 Jul 2025: Unanimous approval of femicide bill (ddl 1433); text transmitted to the Chamber of Deputies.

• The Guardian, 3 Apr 2025: Campus killings spark protests; 2025 femicide tally at 11 by early April; 113 in 2024.

• Law Library of Congress, 28 Dec 2023: New law tightening measures against domestic violence and repeat offenders.

• Aidos/D.i.Re shadow report to GREVIO, 17 Jul 2024: delays in fund transfers; uneven services; gaps in data and training.

• UN Women/UNODC, Global estimates (Nov 2024): 51,100 women and girls killed by a partner or relative in 2023.