Facing all the facts

Organisation

The European Jewish Centre of Information (Centre European Juif d’Information) and the Observatory for Security against Acts of Discrimination (Osservatorio per la Sicurezza Contro gli Atti di Discriminazione, OSCAD).

Start and end date

Start date:

2016.

End date:

2019. The project’s outputs, such as the online training course on hate crime for police officers, are still in use.

Scope

National.

Target group(s)

• Law enforcement staff.
• The Italian general public.
• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
• Institutional stakeholders (e.g. the Ministry of Justice and the National Office against Racial Discrimination – the Italian equality body).

Funding

EU funds.

Objectives

• Identify, through scientific research, the strengths and weaknesses in the current situation at national level with regard to hate crime data monitoring and collection, with the aim of improving cooperation in data sharing between the criminal justice system and civil society organisations (CSOs).
• Develop and deliver a complete online course for the police. The course includes three modules, provides a number of learning tools and uses different learning methodologies.
• CSOs to develop and deliver six online courses on hate crime against the following communities: the Jewish community; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people; migrants and refugees; the Muslim community; people with disabilities; and Roma people.
• Increase cooperation with CSOs.

Outputs

• Bringing together a range of different stakeholders in meetings, from national authorities to CSOs.
• Interviews with CSO representatives and law enforcement specialised investigators.
• First Italian research on hate crime data recording and collection.
• Online hate crime training course for the police (in Italian).
• Six online courses on hate crime against the following communities: the Jewish community, LGBT people, migrants and refugees, the Muslim community, people with disabilities and Roma people.

Description

The project had three major components.

• The research strand, ‘Connecting on hate crime data in Italy’, which was realised using different methodologies. In particular, this included meeting with different stakeholders, who were invited to share common experiences and reflect on the current situation at national level with regard to hate crime data monitoring/collection and hate crime victim support. The outputs of the research were as follows:
  • ‘The story of hate crime recording and data collection’: a timeline including some of the most relevant milestones for Italy (events, legislative innovations, hate crimes committed that changed the country’s perspective, etc.);
  • ‘Hate crime journey’: an ‘easy-to-read’ picture of the difficulties that victims of hate crime face during the criminal justice process;
  • ‘The system map’: a graphical representation of the links and relationships between different Italian stakeholders, represented with different colours based on the level of perceived connection (good, medium or poor).
• The online hate crime training course for the police: a three-module course that aimed, using different methodologies (videos, infographics, real case studies and interviews), to improve the operational capacity of law enforcement personnel in preventing and fighting hate crime.
  • The first module, ‘What is a hate crime?’, provides basic literacy on hate crime, information on the specificities of hate crime, and information on the legal framework at national and international levels.
  • The second module, ‘Bias indicators’, analyses different bias indicators (which the Office for Security and Co-operation in Europe defines as “Objective facts, circumstances, or patterns attending a criminal act(s), which, standing alone or in conjunction with other facts or circumstances, suggest that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by any form of bias”) for each ground of discrimination. The module includes reports and interviews with both law enforcement and CSO representatives (the latter offer the victim’s perspective) about real case studies.
  • The third module focuses on how to relate to victims and NGOs. It presents several interviews with investigators, who share their experiences and some practical tips for frontline officers and investigators.
• Six specific online courses on hate crime against the following communities: the Jewish community, LGBT people, migrants and refugees, the Muslim community, people with disabilities and Roma people.

Critical success factors

• Cooperation with CSOs (for both research and the training course).
• Use of different methodologies (for both research and the training course).
• ‘In-person’ meetings with different stakeholders.
• Practical approach (for the training course).
• Blending new training material with already-existing tools.
• Developing training materials that are tailored to the country’s needs, including using an international approach.
• Providing a snapshot of the country’s situation with regard to data recording and collection, which should be the starting point to fill in the existing gaps.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

• The European Jewish Centre of Information, as lead partner, provided the methodology and designed the project.
• The Italian equality body, the National Office against Racial Discrimination, participated in the stakeholder meetings and the ‘change agents interviews’.
• Italian NGOs (Cooperation for the Development of Emerging Countries, Lunaria, Arcigay (Associazione LGBTI Italiana), Rete Lenford (Avvocatura per i Diritti LGBTI)) participated in the stakeholder meetings, ‘change agents interviews’, revision of the timeline and the system map, and video interviews that were used as training material for the online course.
• The former chief of police created the introductory video for the training course, which sent a strong message of endorsement for the topic.
• Law enforcement personnel (from the Italian National Police and Carabinieri Corps, the two Italian law enforcement agencies represented in OSCAD) described their personal experiences.
• The Central Directorate for Police Training Institutes supported the transposition of the online course created by OSCAD in the framework of the Facing All the Facts project into the Italian law enforcement e-learning platform (Sistema di Formazione On Line delle Forze dell'Ordine). This made the material available for all law enforcement agencies at national and local levels.
• National police and Carabinieri Corps academies are invited to use the new training material produced, along with already-existing tools.

Monitoring and evaluation

In 2021, the online training course, with a further module on discriminatory racial profiling, will be part of a compulsory in-service training for all officers in the Italian National Police. At the end of 2021, the number of people who completed the course will be assessed.

Publicly available contact details

Observatory for Security against Acts of Discrimination
Email: oscad@dcpc.interno.it

Facing All the Facts
Email: melissa.sonnino@ceji.org or onlinelearning@facingfacts.eu