The collection of official data (administrative or statistical) on discrimination and racist crimes is one of the challenges that international agencies have long faced in their efforts to monitor these phenomena systematically. One of the main difficulties lies in the very nature of the phenomenon being monitored. A large proportion of racist acts, behaviours, and incidents of violence remain hidden because they are not reported either by those who experience them or by those who witness them.
The shortage of official data that continues to be recorded in Italy, including in relation to known cases of discrimination and racism that have been reported to the competent authorities, goes well beyond these inherent limitations. In addition to the persistent absence of a coordinated system for collecting data on the various forms of discriminatory acts and racist crimes, the issue is also one of transparency: the available official administrative data are not disseminated to a sufficient extent, while the most recent national statistical surveys on the phenomenon date back many years.
At the time of writing, a new nationwide survey conducted by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) is underway. The survey aims to examine public perceptions regarding the prevalence of discrimination in Italian society in its various forms (including discrimination based on gender, health status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other grounds), as well as any experiences of discrimination that respondents may have suffered. However, the results have not yet been published.
The available data on crimes committed with a racist motive
The information gaps concerning Italy are particularly significant with regard to crimes committed with a racist motive. The online databases available on the website of the Ministry of Justice and the statistics published by ISTAT on criminal justice do not make it possible to identify data on this type of crime, nor are data on reports submitted to the law enforcement agencies easily accessible.1
Every year, in the month of November, ODIHR (the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE) publishes an international report on so-called hate crimes, namely crimes committed on the basis of a discriminatory motive. These are administrative data which, in the case of Italy, are communicated to ODIHR by the law enforcement agencies and by OSCAD (the Observatory for Security against Discriminatory Acts2). Alongside these official data, ODIHR also collects qualitative information on the cases documented by civil society organisations.
The chart below presents, as a historical series, the data on discriminatory crimes and on those specifically racist crimes reported by the Italian authorities to ODIHR/OSCE since 2013
Source: Lunaria’s elaboration on Oscad/Odihr data, https://hatecrime.osce.org/italy
As can easily be observed, over time the number of reports has generally shown an upward trend, reaching a peak of 1,445 reports in 2021. In the following years, however, a downward trend can be observed.
In 2024, a total of 893 “hate crimes” were reported to ODIHR: 543 of these had a racist motive, 244 an ableist motive, and 104 a homolesbobitransphobic motive. It should be noted, however, that in 2024, unlike in previous years, cases of “incitement to violence” are not included, even though they had been significant in previous years: considering racist crimes alone, cases of incitement to violence amounted to 380 in 2021, 276 in 2022, and 264 in 2023.
Although ODIHR has always been careful to emphasize the distinction between the concept of a crime and that of hate speech (which does not necessarily have criminal relevance), in Italy, incitement to violence on racist, ethnic, national or religious grounds is a criminal offence provided for under Article 604 bis of the Criminal Code. The ratio behind the exclusion of this type of offence from the collection of published data is therefore unclear.
The available ODIHR data are also broken down by type of offence. The chart below shows that, among the xenophobic and racist offences reported to the law enforcement authorities in 2024, desecration of graves, physical violence, and cases of public nuisance are the most numerous.
2024. Racist crimes reported by OSCAD to ODIHR/OSCE by type of crime
Source: OSCAD/ODIHR, https://hatecrime.osce.org/italy
Even ODIHR has been unable, since 2018, to obtain information on the number of ongoing judicial proceedings and convictions handed down for prosecuting this type of crime.3
Discrimination data published by UNAR
The other official administrative source of reference is UNAR (National Office against Racial Discrimination). The office, established in 2003 and placed within the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is tasked with ensuring the right to equal treatment and combating discrimination by collecting reports, providing assistance to victims, conducting research and analysis, promoting awareness-raising activities, and reporting to the Government and Parliament. The office’s remit differs from that of OSCAD: UNAR deals with cases of discrimination that do not have criminal relevance.
The latest published data refer to 2024.4 The Office’s Contact Center collected a total of 17,640 reports of discrimination through two channels: web monitoring and direct reports received from citizens.
The direct reports received by the Contact Center in 2024 amounted to 1,106; of these, 641 were classified as relevant. Looking at a five-year period, the number of direct reports received by the Contact Center shows an irregular but generally upward trend compared with 2020.
Source: UNAR, Report to Parliament, 2024
Considering only the reports deemed relevant, as in previous years, the “ethnic-racial” ground is the most recurrent (70.5%), followed by disability status (13.1%) and sexual orientation and gender identity (5.9%). Discrimination based on prejudice related to age (3.9%), religion (3.1%), and other grounds was less frequent.
2024. Relevant reports by discrimination ground.
Source: UNAR, Report to Parliament, 2024
Work, society and public life, finance and banking, housing, public bodies and public administration, and public establishments are the areas in which the cases of discrimination reported to UNAR’s Contact Center in 2024 were most frequent.
Source: UNAR, Report to Parliament, 2024
Let’s use the data with caution
The data presented above are administrative in nature, meaning that they are produced by the authorities responsible for combating discrimination and racism through monitoring activities and victim assistance, as well as through the collection of reports and investigations. While they constitute a fundamental source of information for understanding and analysing the evolution of racism in our country, they represent only that part of discrimination and racist violence that is reported and brought to the attention of the authorities. On the other hand, it should always be borne in mind that an increase in the number of reports does not in itself indicate an upward trend in discrimination. It could, in fact, be the result of stronger cooperation between the office, local authorities and associations operating in the area, or of greater activism by civil society organisations in activities aimed at protecting rights. For all these reasons, official administrative data on discrimination and racist crimes are very useful, but they should be used with caution, taking into account their non-statistical nature.
- In the security and crime reports periodically published by the Ministry of the Interior, reports of racist crimes are not taken into consideration, while the analysis of crime data goes into detail about crimes committed by foreign nationals. Likewise, the Ministry of Justice’s website provides regular updates on data concerning foreign prisoners, but not on ongoing trials or rulings relating to racist crimes. ↩︎
- The data are provided by combining data from the “Investigation System – SDI” (extracted from the inter-agency CED), concerning crimes with discriminatory motives that have “legal coverage” (i.e. relating to “race,” ethnicity, nationality, religion, membership of Roma and Sinti minorities, and linguistic minorities), with OSCAD reports concerning discriminatory areas lacking specific legal coverage (relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability status). ↩︎
- ODIHR, Hate Crimes Annual Report for 2024, Key Observations, https://hatecrime.osce.org/italy ↩︎
- See: UNAR, Report to Parliament on the activities carried out and on the effective application of the principle of equal treatment and the effectiveness of protection mechanisms, 2024, available here: UNAR – Report to Parliament 2024 ↩︎
