Italy’s parliament on Tuesday approved a law that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life in prison.

The vote coincided with the international day for the elimination of violence against women, a day designated by the U.N. General Assembly.

The law won bipartisan support from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition in the final vote in the Lower Chamber, passing with 237 votes in favor.

The law, backed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes in response to a series of killings and other violence targeting women in Italy. It includes stronger measures against gender-based crimes including stalking and revenge porn.

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[–] 43 points 9 months ago (124 children)

It seems weird to consider half the people as "protected class". But only one gender. Dunno why they didn't just make hate crime the charge and make misogyny fall under that

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  • [–] 48 points 9 months ago* (69 children)

    They're a protected class because they're singled out for violence because of their class. And it's a real world problem not a logic quiz. Misogyny and misandry are not equivalent in reality the way they are in the dictionary.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago (48 children)

    Does that make hate crime murder against men less worth prosecuting as such? Why shouldn't the legal definition be symmetrical?

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (17 children)

    How many hate crime murders of men are there in Italy?

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  • [–] 18 points 9 months ago* (16 children)

    Idk probably less and so the law against hate crimes for men would be used less than the one against them for women. Again, why would you not treat them the same in each individual case? If 80% of thievery was committed against women, would you not also prosecute the 20% committed against men just the same?

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (10 children)

    At no point did anyone suggest that they weren’t prosecuting murder against men, nor did they suggest they would do so with less effort. All this law does is allow the courts to take misogyny into account so that motive isn’t ignored or downplayed during the charging proces.

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  • [–] 26 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    I would assume the thinking is centered around wanting to draw specific attention to the issue. And to more clearly cite it as a unique thing for awareness purposes.

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  • [–] 23 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    This. The goal is to send a message. Over half the women killed were murdered by intimate partners. Such a crime would already be punished by life imprisonment for Aggravated Homicide.

    However femicide also includes refusal for emotional relationship, or resistance to limiting her freedom as motivators, as admissible motives for femicide.

    https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/20211564_mh0421097enn_pdf_0.pdf

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  • [+] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago

    So the data I linked alleges that ~43% of female homicides in Italy are committed by a current or former spouse. While a global estimate says that 29% of all female homicides are committed by current/former spouse or a family member.

    So while I think this thread brings the incels out of the wood works... it's not really targeting incels.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago* (45 children)

    Exactly. This should have been something that applies to all: 'murdering someone due to their sex is now a hate crime'.

    Having the law give more consideration to one sex over another, particularly with something like murder, is quite sexist.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (43 children)

    This would be true if there were commensurate rates of murder where the motivation is misandry. Otherwise you just like the veneer of equality to cover up the rot underneath.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (30 children)

    If perpetrators happen to be of one sex more often, then it means the rates of being charged with the relevant crime will be higher for that sex.

    A crime must be treated equally, regardless of sex. The law treating one differently based on their sex is itself sexist. As I stated before, this should have been something that applies to all: ‘murdering someone due to their sex is now a hate crime’.

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