Commissione "JO COX" sull'intoleranza, xenofobia, il razzismo e I fenomeni di odio, (2017), Relazione Finale, 6 July 2017

Country

Italy

Title

Commissione "JO COX" sull'intoleranza, xenofobia, il razzismo e I fenomeni di odio, (2017), Relazione Finale, 6 July 2017

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Year

2017

Type of publication

Report

Geographical coverage

National

Area/location of interest

Not applicable - national level

Type of Institution

Public authority

Institution

Commissione "JO COX"

Main Thematic Focus

Hate crime

Target Population

Muslims Migrants LGBTI People with migrant background

Key findings

The report retraces the definition of hate crimes and the in-force legislation contrasting it at European and national level. Moreover, the report stresses the specific features of the hate crimes depending on the victim target, including women, migrants, Muslims and LGBT subjects. According to the data, the attitude of Italian citizens towards immigrants can be labelled as suspicious (60.1%), hostile (6.9%) or indifferent (15.8%). Only 17.2% of the ISTAT interviewees considers that the attitude of Italians towards immigrants is friendly sympathetic. 80.8% of the interviewees consider that the integration of immigrants into Italian society is difficult and this is considered impossible by 2.4% of the interviewees. 56.4% of the ISTAT interviewees considers that life quality of neighbourhoods decrease if many immigrants live in it; 52.6% considers that the increase of immigrants living in a territory entails an upsurge of terrorism and criminality. Public problems which are generally related to the presence of immigrants are illegal activities/criminality (72.3%) and violence and disorders (48.4%). The nationalities generally connected with this kind of issues are: Romania, Morocco and Albania. 41.1% of the interviewees expressed his/her opposition to the possibility to open a mosque in his/her neighbourhood. This is because of the possibility that this decision entails potential dangers for public security (28.3%) and to respond to the perceived impossibility to open a Catholic church in Muslim countries (26.6%). Finally, the report lists some recommendations to improve the contrast to discriminations and hate crimes. These include: the adoption of a national strategy to contrast discrimination and hate crimes in all their forms; the adoption of a legal definition of "hate speech"; the improvement of the quantity and quality of data and statistics concerning these issues; the approval of a specific legislation concerning hate crimes; awareness raising and training activities destined to the most relevant institutional stakeholders.

Methodology (Qualitative/Quantitative and exact type used, questionnaires etc)

The Italian Parliament created on 10 May 2016 a study commission on intolerance, racism, xenophobia and hate crimes and dedicated it to the UK Chamber of Commons' member Jo Cox, deceased because of a hate crime on 16 June 2016. This is the final report of the commission's activity which was based on several hearings of the most relevant stakeholders in the contrast to discriminations and hate crimes. Thanks to this activity the Commission was able to release this comprehensive report on the Italian situation concerning hate crimes episodes and the policies to be implemented to contrast them, as well as some crucial recommendations to improve such policies.

Sample details and representativeness

There is not a specific sample since this study is based on the knowledge the parliamentary commission developed thanks to the network it established with the most relevant stakeholders in this field. Nonetheless, the study is considered to be highly representative because of the expertise of the commission's members and of the relevant number of hearings it carried out in order to redact it.

DISCLAIMERThe information presented here is collected under contract by the FRA's research network FRANET. The information and views contained do not necessarily reflect the views or the official position of the FRA.