How much Italy spends on gender violence

“We are the very loud and ferocious cry of all those women who no longer have a voice” and no longer have funds.
If we talk about numbers, parallel to feminicides (from 1 January to 19 November there were 106 victims) we cannot help but talk about prevention numbers.
It is the preventive interventions, and not the punitive ones on which politicians continue to focus government after government, that allow us not to count yet another victim.
It is precisely these numbers that frame the real interest of a government in making the difference between life and death, in addition to the pro-chamber recitation that lasts the time of a new hot topic.
The Meloni government, which many (feminine overextended not by chance) believed to be a presidency in favor of women, has not made any major moves.
At least not in a positive way.
In 2023 Meloni and co.
they cut 70% of funding for the prevention of violence against women.
Not that the numbers suggested a decrease in the phenomenon; just think that in 2021 almost 60% of women victims of homicide were killed at the hands of a partner or ex-partner, a number that rises to 84% if relatives are considered.
In 2019 the number was 101, while in 2020 it was 106 (Istat and Ministry of the Interior data).
A stable rhythm that reveals a further truth: women are almost always killed by someone close to them.
Spending on prevention therefore continues to be a priority and the 5 million allocated for 2023 is clearly insufficient.
read also How to stop violence against women How much does Italy spend on the protection of women? The news, which emerged particularly after the death of Giulia Cecchettin, is that the Meloni government has cut funding for the prevention of violence against women by 70%.
In numbers this means that from the 17 million euros expected for 2022 (Draghi government), we have gone to just 5 million euros for 2023.
An alarming figure which places Italy as far away as possible from the indications of the Convention of Istanbul, which instead includes prevention among the practices to be implemented for gender violence.
How? Not through punishment, which simply puts the word "justice" on yet another coffin, but by promoting socio-cultural change aimed at the roots of gender violence.
The problem of funds is more intricate, in fact only a part is available for prevention.
Between 2020 and 2023, 7% (out of a total of 248.8 million euros) were spent on strengthening the anti-violence system, 81% on the protection of women and only 12% on the prevention of violence.
Prevention has been and continues to be not a priority and one can suspect a reason: one cannot immediately boast of the result, because prevention and education produce results in the medium to long term.
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How much does gender violence cost in Italy? In the absence of prevention, gender violence has a high cost for the country.
Economist Azzurra Rinaldi did the math and put together some data.
According to the United Nations, in fact, gender violence has a cost of 2% of global GDP, or approximately 1,500 billion dollars (Canada's gross domestic product to use Rinaldi's impact comparison).
In Europe the cost is around 366 billion dollars, money spent on services related to the physical and emotional impact of violence, on criminal justice services and on the loss of economic production resulting from gender violence.
In Italy the cost amounts to over 39 billion euros.
The direct costs include (average expenditure) around 460 million in healthcare costs, 158 million in psychological consultancy, 44 million in drugs, 235 million in public order, 421 million for judicial costs, 290 million for legal costs and 154 million for social services and 8 million for anti-violence centres.
Considerable amounts that we continue to spend "too late", i.e.
when the crimes have already been committed.
They could, frankly, be spent in better ways, for example by investing in sexuality education and adult education and prevention programs, as well as funding human services.
read also What is the risk of Filippo Turetta, investigated for killing Giulia Cecchettin What is Italy doing against gender violence? When and if Italy takes action, it is late and can only act on the punishment.
It was hoped (albeit timidly, given the government's matrix) that the first Prime Minister (pretending that she did not ask to be called the male one) could make a difference in the numbers of victims of gender violence.
However, this is not the case and indeed we are faced with a series of superficially and in practice useless choices.
Following news cases that made the rounds in Italy, the Minister of Education and Merit announced a "Relationship Education" program.
A great promise, which simulates a response to those from below who ask for sexuality education, but which shatters its very structure: one hour of meetings a week, for three months a year, non-compulsory, outside the lesson time.
In short, a guaranteed success, to which is added the coordinator of the pool of psychologists and jurists, namely Alessandro Amadori who in the books "The war of the sexes" and "The devil is (also) a woman" explains how women are evil and sometimes violent.
Last February Giorgia Meloni announced a Commission for feminicides, 36 members and 5 meetings later, no document has yet been produced.
The illusions of the Meloni government do not end here, perhaps the bottom of the barrel is the initiative of the Minister of Justice Nordio, who as a form of re-education is ready to prepare a "brochure with understandable graphics".
We are in an iron barrel.
read also Giulia Tramontano case, the usual errors and horrors: here's where we are going wrong Bill against gender violence: a non-solution The Roccella bill, or the bill against gender violence, became law with the unanimous vote of Senate.
This proposes measures against violence and feminicides, but does so by focusing on punishment and not prevention.
In the 19 articles we can see measures such as: deferred arrest, when the crime emerges from photos and videos; increase in penalties for the crimes of stalking, harassment and sexual violence; electronic bracelet, with prison sentence if tampered with; compensation for the victim or family members; minimum distance of 500 meters from places frequented by the victim.
What is missing? Prevention.
The Roccella bill punishes, but does not prevent the crime.
So with yet another minute of silence, perhaps we will have one more person in prison, but also one more victim underground.
A positive comment comes from Francesco Boccia, president of the Democratic Party senators, who is satisfied with having obtained funding for the training of health workers and law enforcement, but above all with a future and rapid scheduling for interventions on the prevention and fight against violence “in order to arrive at that national law and those shared measures that the students also asked Minister Valditara today”.