Evolving Legal Landscape in the Field of Domestic Abuse in Italy

Italy's slow path of recognizing violence against women legally began long before the implementation of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (11th May 2011). In fact, starting from years 1968-1969, with the repeal of those articles of the Criminal Code providing regulations for the crimes of adultery committed by the wife and of concubinage committed by the husband, numerous goals had been reached until 2019 when the law regarding “Protection of victims of domestic and gender-based violence” was promulgated. This law accelerated the procedures for the adoption of measures to protect victims, strengthen penalties for some crimes linked to domestic abuse (for crimes of “abuses against family members and others cohabitants” and of stalking), revised some aggravating circumstances and created new types of crimes (the ones of “violation of measures of estrangement from home and prohibition of approaching locations frequented by the offended party”, of “forced and induced marriage”, and of “the illegal circulation of sexually-explicit images or videos” – the so-called revenge porn). Regarding the interest of the legislator in the broad and multifaced phenomenon of domestic abuse, it is important to specify that Italy belongs to the group of the first countries which ratified the Istanbul Convention allowing, in this way, its entry into force on 1st August 2014. Therefore, legislative changes in Italy are particularly important since the law, apart from the desired deterrent effect, has also a communicative value, as to say that its purpose is to inform citizens about shared values in a specific social context. However, responses to domestic abuse cannot be and should not be a narrow approach exclusively inspired by repressive logics because sometimes, these could be interpreted as linked to emergency circumstances attributed to situations of exception. Unfortunately, we know that domestic abuse events are not exceptional situations, but they are ongoing phenomena which, although extremely serious, takes on the characteristics of ordinariness and the period of Covid-19 lockdowns, without a doubt clearly highlighted all its seriousness. Thus, in addition to the punishment, it is equally necessary to focus on the enforcement of the rules and as the Istanbul Convention states, on prevention, protection of victims and integrated public policies. Therefore, the aim of this article is to show what Italy can still accomplish in this field, especially in the light of the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights of 27th May 2021 (Court’s case-law 251: J.L. v. Italy – allegations of gang rape and acquittal of the presumed assaillants). This sentence determined that it is essential that “Italian authorities should avoid repeat sexist stereotypes in the area of judicial decisions, minimize gender-based violence and expose women to secondary victimization using blaming and moralizing assertions aiming at discouraging victims’ trust in justice”.