Italy Names the Crime: Femicide Becomes a Standalone Offence — A Victory Lit by Candlelight, Questions Still Burning
On a damp November evening in Turin, hundreds gathered beneath the amber glow of street lamps. They came with scarves knotted tight against the cold, with taped photographs, with handwritten placards that read names and demands. A tram clattered past, indifferent. A woman near the fountain began to read, voice steady: “We remember them not as statistics but as daughters, sisters, mothers.”
By morning in Rome, the Italian parliament had enshrined that sentiment into law. Lawmakers voted 237 to 0 to add a new article to the penal code creating a distinct category of homicide motivated by the characteristics of the victim — a legal recognition of femicide as a crime in itself, with life imprisonment as the prescribed sentence when the killing is intentional and rooted in discrimination, hatred or gendered violence.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni framed the move as a matter of dignity. “This law defends the freedom and dignity of every woman,” she said after the vote. It was the kind of rhetorical seal politicians relish: decisive, public, unanimous. “We have given the state a new instrument to name and punish an old evil,” she added.
From Aggravation to Autonomy: Why the Change Matters
The shift is both symbolic and structural. Until now, Italian law typically treated gendered killings under aggravating circumstances — for instance, when the perpetrator was a spouse or relative. The new provision creates a standalone offence: homicide defined by the victim’s gender or other defining characteristics.
For survivors and activists, that differentiation matters. “When you name something, you can see it, you can track it, you can fight it,” said Maria Bianchi, director of a Turin anti-violence centre, who was among those at last night’s vigil. “For decades the law treated these deaths as private tragedies. This recognizes them as political, social, hateful acts that require a specific response.”
It also changes reporting and statistical practice. Advocates say that by categorising femicides explicitly, authorities will be better able to measure trends, identify hotspots and allocate resources — from counseling to safe housing — where they are most needed.
Numbers That Refuse to Be Ignored
The vote came as the United Nations marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, releasing a grim figure: approximately 50,000 women and girls were killed worldwide last year by partners or family members.
Closer to home, Italy’s national statistics institute, Istat, reported that of the 327 homicides recorded in the country in 2024, 116 involved women and girls. In 92.2% of those cases, men were the perpetrators — a stark arithmetic that underscores the gendered pattern.
“Those numbers are not abstractions,” said Giulia Romano, a social worker who runs emergency shelter placements. “Each statistic is a person who was known to someone. And too often we hear — if we had known, if someone had listened — but the listening systems were weak.”
Voices from the Streets: Protesters, Experts and a Survivor
At the Turin demonstration, the faces in the crowd were as varied as Italy itself: students in wool beanies, retired teachers with trembling hands, a young mother pushing a stroller. An elderly man laid down a single red rose and said softly, “This is a wound for all of us.”
“We’re glad the law passed,” said Anna Rossi, 34, who traced the name on her placard. “But laws don’t warm beds at night or keep abusers away from doorstep windows. We need shelters. We need hotlines answered in the middle of the night.”
Criminologists were cautiously optimistic. “Legislative recognition is important — it signals a social condemnation,” said Professor Lorenzo De Santis of the University of Milan. “But the deterrent effect of harsher sentences is mixed. Prevention, rapid intervention, and integrated services matter more for reducing repeat violence.”
A prosecutor who wished to remain unnamed told me that the new statute will change charging practices. “Prosecutors will have a clearer legal frame to bring these cases with the gravity they deserve,” she said. “But conviction depends on evidence and the work of investigators, who are stretched thin.”
Local Color: A Country’s Public Squares as Stages of Memory
Italy’s public life is threaded through its piazzas and cafés, and those spaces are where grief and resistance meet. In Rome, a candlelit procession snaked past churches where bells tolled at dusk; in Palermo, a mural of a woman’s silhouette has become a meeting point for families of victims. These are small rituals of memory — public, stubborn, necessary.
“We marked the day here because public grief must be seen,” said Paolo, a volunteer handing out leaflets, his voice raw with the effort of so many names. “If we forget them in closed rooms, the pattern continues.”
What Comes Next: Policy, Prevention, and the Long Work of Culture Change
Passing a law is the beginning, not the end. The new article gives judges the statutory language to impose life sentences where homicide is proven to be driven by gender-based hatred, but it does not automatically provide the supportive infrastructure that survivors urgently need.
- Emergency shelters and long-term housing must be funded and staffed.
- Training for police and prosecutors on gender-based violence needs expansion.
- Education campaigns in schools and workplaces must confront misogyny and entitlement.
- Data collection and monitoring mechanisms must be created so policy responses are evidence-based.
“If you want to stop a killing, you don’t start with a gavel; you start with prevention,” said Dr. Alessandra Vitale, a sociologist who studies intimate partner violence. “That means mental health services, economic supports for women who want to leave, swift protective measures, and cultural education. Punishment is crucial — but it arrives after the harm.”
The debate is not purely Italian. Across Europe and beyond, countries are wrestling with whether to create special femicide statutes or to beef up existing domestic abuse laws. The outcome in Italy will be watched by legislators and activists worldwide as a potential blueprint or cautionary tale.
Questions to Leave You With
What does justice look like for survivors and for families whose loss can never be remedied? Is naming femicide as a distinct crime enough to alter the daily realities of those living with menace in their homes? And finally: how do societies move from consensus in parliament to consensus in the kitchen, the workplace, the schoolyard?
Tonight, candles still flicker in Turin and elsewhere, a fragile, human light against a long dark. The law now carries a name and a severe penalty. The work ahead is to make sure that name carries with it prevention, protection, and the steady, sometimes invisible labor of changing minds.
“We passed a law,” Maria Bianchi said as the crowd dispersed, voice low with relief and resolve. “Now we must pass a culture. We owe it to every woman whose name is written on those placards.”
