• Minor violence: records in 2016, 5383 victims, 15 per day. Terre des Hommes: females 6 cases out of 10
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10 October 2019 In 2018 in Italy there are 5990 violence against minors, 3% more since 2017. The victims were mainly girls and boys (59.4%). To say this is the new dossier of the "Indifesa" campaign by Terre des Hommes to focus on the rights denied to millions of children in Italy and in the world.

The network of 11 international organizations, based in Switzerland, in the data prepared by the Joint Command explains that one third of the victims suffered family maltreatment, a crime growing by 14% since 2017.

The dossier, in its eighth edition, was presented on the eve of the 11th October World Day of Girls, to underline that it is far from achieving gender parity advocated by the fifth goal of Sustainable Development of the 2030 UN Agenda.

If the data of child victims of crime are compared with those of ten years ago, the percentage has increased by 43% since in 2009 there were 4,178.

The problem of gender-based sexual violence
Sexual violence is the second crime in terms of victims: 656 in 2018, 89% of women. In addition to the victims of aggravated sexual violence, which saw 383 victims last year, 84% were females. In both cases there has been a contained decrease since 2017, respectively -6% and -1%, which only partially balances the enormity of the number of victims.

The number of child prostitution victims also decreased (-3%), while the number of child victims of child pornography grew by 3%: a total of 199, 80% of girls and boys.

There were 16 juvenile murder victims in 2018, 8 of whom were females. The figure is down 27% compared to 2017, when 22 children were killed.

Girls and girls with disabilities are victims of gender-based violence ten times more than their peers without disabilities. Discriminated from birth, newborn girls with disabilities are more likely, in some countries, to be killed or never legally registered in the registry office, and therefore do not have access to health services, education and social services.

The research shows the estimate, among other things, that between now and 2030 68 million girls will be subjected to genital mutilation and 130 million girls and girls excluded from school who end up being exploited in humble and low-paid jobs or by suffering abuse and violence in early relationships and marriages.

Violence against minors in Italy, 5,990 victims in 2018, 3% more than in 2017. emerge what emerges from the report of Terre des Hommes @tdhitaly #IoSeguoTgr pic.twitter.com/JPLJUqSKIN

- Tgr Rai (@TgrRai) October 10, 2019

Every year, 12 million girls under the age of 18 marry, often with much older men, and about 2 million girls under the age of 15 become pregnant. These are teenagers unprepared to face a pregnancy that, in one case out of two, is not sought.

The president of Terre des Hommes, Donatella Vergari, asks "the government a greater commitment to combating and preventing violence and gender discrimination, starting with the youngest who are often forgotten or taken for granted in this challenge".

The Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Family, Elena Bonetti, a guest in the Sala della Regina of Palazzo Montecitorio, says: "There is a lot to do, we will do it and we will continue to do so by carrying out all the incentives that must be given to the realities that they already face the problems of violence, in particular gender-based violence ".

Data for Italian regions
The largest number of crimes against minors in Italy in 2018 is recorded in Lombardy with 1,090 victims, followed by Sicily (646), Emilia Romagna (611), Lazio (551) and Veneto (422). The most significant increase, however, was recorded in Lazio (+ 25%), which rose from 440 victims in 2017 to 551 victims in 2018. Calabria also recorded an increase in crimes against minors (+ 14%) , going from 185 victims in 2017 to 210 victims in 2018.

The most significant decline is in Basilicata (-33%, from 45 victims in 2017 to 30 victims in 2018) and in the Valle d'Aosta (-30%, from 23 victims in 2017 to 16 victims in 2018).

Emilia Romagna is instead the region where in 2018 the highest number of child prostitution victims was recorded (14, mostly males), followed by Lombardy (11, 73% females), Sicily (10), Lazio and Piedmont (both with 5 cases).

Also for crimes of sexual violence and aggravated sexual violence, Lombardy registered a dramatic record in 2018, with 126 victims (90% female) and 103 victims (84% female) respectively. Followed, for crimes of sexual violence, by Emilia Romagna (75 victims), Tuscany (64), Lazio (62) and Piedmont (52).