The Atlas of feminicides in Italy: the map that tells and defends women

The year is 2021. The women killed are 106 and they were killed mainly because they were women. Each of these women has a name and a face drawn in theAtlas of feminicides in Italy. For each there is a place and many other data to tell the massacre continues in Italy and beyond, the massacre of violence against women.

There are names like that of Ilenia Fabbri killed in her home by a hitman hired by her ex-husband. The 21-year-old daughter appeared as a civil party in the trial against her father, who has always declared himself innocent, and the hitman, who confessed. There are names like that of Roberta Siragusa who was killed when she was yet to turn 18 most likely killed by her boyfriend. She would set it on fire and watch it die while texting a friend. From Faenza to Sicily, across kilometers and different generations.

The goal of the Atlas is to collect and make public numbers and information on cases of violence like these. It serves to simplify the analyzes and, consequently, to facilitate the development of prevention strategies. The project, financed by the Emilia-Romagna Region, co-financed by the Municipality of Bologna, was carried out by Studio Atlantis on the data collected by the Casa delle donne in order not to suffer violence in Bologna.

The one that has just gone online is the first interactive platform in Italy for the geographical representation, but not only, of the killings of women as such. Through the digital pages of the atlas it is clear that violence against women is transversal and affects everyone, without distinction of social affiliation. 87% of the feminicides found in the media last year were committed by a family member and in 50% of the cases it was the partner. Since 2020 this type of crime has been on the increase, so much so that a direct relationship with Covid could be hypothesized. Nearly half of the victims were over 60, with a considerable increase in this age group compared to previous years. At least 44% of the killers had previously inflicted physical violence against women and 12% had been reported. The majority of feminicides took place in northern Italy.

«Within the Atlas of feminicides it is possible to carry out searches on the basis of several parameters, including the relationship with the murderer, previous violence, the complaints presented, the age and origin of the victim and aggressor, thetrigger” (even if, for all the cases analysed, the true and deepest motive is the very condition of being a woman)», explained Nieves Lòpez of Studio Atlantis.

“There is a desire to tell and contextualize the stories of violence in the most respectful way possible, to restore dignity to the memory of the murdered woman: for this reason, great attention has been paid to language”, added Margherita Apone of the Women’s house not to suffer violence in Bologna.

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