The long months of lockdown and forced cohabitation in homes have further extended the black page of femicides in our country.
The data, in black and white, was confirmed in an Istat report dedicated to the homicides: in the first 6 months of 2020 the situation worsened further with a number of crimes equal to 45% of the total homicides, against 35% of the first six months of 2019.
The percentage then jumped to 50% during the lockdown in March and April.
A trail of blood continued without interruption, given that in 2019 the number of femicides had reached 101 and in 2018 the percentage of men accused of murder was 93%.
According to the Institute of Statistics, women were killed within the home - therefore in an emotional / family context - in 90% of cases in the first half of 2020 at the hands of partners or former partners (61%).
And, apart from the negative exceptionality of the lockdown phase, the gloomy overview of femicides finds a temporal red thread with the 2019 data, which confirm a general decline in homicides and a decisive counter-trend of those perpetrated in the family.
In 2019, Istat records, the homicides were 315 (345 in 2018) of which 204 men and 111 women.
And also in that year in the family or emotional sphere the number of victims increased: 150 in 2019 (47.5% of the total), with 93 female victims (83.8% of the total of female murders).
Gender differences, therefore, points out Istat, remain strong: in 2019 homicides in the family or affective context were 27.9% of the total of those committed by men and 83.8% of those who had victims women.
A considerable increase if we consider that fifteen years ago the same values were respectively 12% and 59.1%.
Specifically, in 2019 55 murders (49.5%) were caused by a man with whom the woman was linked by an emotional relationship (husband, cohabitant, boyfriend) and 13 (11.7%) by a former partner.
It should also be emphasized that among the partners, in 70% of cases the murderer is the husband, while among the ex cohabitants and ex-boyfriends prevail.
The murders of partners are added to those of other family members (22.5%, equal to 25 women) and other acquaintances (4.5%; 5 victims), overall values stable over the years.
In 2019, the rate of female victims of partners was higher in the Islands (0.36 per 100 thousand women, against 0.22 of the national average) and followed in the North-East (0.25) and in the North-West ( 0.23).
Among the regions, Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Sicily and Sardinia are above the average, with rates ranging from 0.45 to 0.36 per 100 thousand women.
The few murders in Umbria, in the province of Trento and Bolzano, and almost all those that occurred in Piedmont, Liguria, Marche, Tuscany, Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Sardinia are in the family context.
In Basilicata, however, no murders of women were recorded for the whole of 2019.
The data on the killings of women was confirmed a few days ago in the report of the Criminal Analysis Service of the Police.
The study showed a slight increase in female victims, from 111 in 2019 to 112 in 2020, and an increase in women killed in the family, which rose from 94 in 2019 to 98 last year.
More specifically, the police study showed that in February, May and October 2020, 100% of women victims of homicide lost their lives in a family-affective environment.
(HANDLE).