The Ministry of the Interior, which publishes official statistics
regarding the number and type of crimes reported in the previous year,
has released these data exclusively to a newspaper. As always in these
cases, reading the numbers immediately becomes political, and the more
detailed the tables, the more open it is to bias interpretations based
on one's own ideas about the phenomenon of "crime." A term that
encompasses behaviors ranging from a triple homicide to the defacement
of a public building-different incidents lumped together to contribute
to the overall total. While we wait for the official data to be made
available, let's look at some of the data released in the previews.
A total of 2,380,653 crimes were reported by law enforcement to the
Judicial Authority in 2024. Over the course of (almost) twenty years,
the number rose from 2,771,490 in 2006, then increased to 2,892,155
(2013), and then began to decline to 1,900,624 (2019).
Looking at its overall trend, it can be said that there has been a
downward trend, even taking into account the anomaly of the two years of
COVID. It must always be kept in mind that this number represents the
total number of reports, not convictions, which, for obvious reasons, is
lower. Therefore, even if there were 1.7% more reports in 2024 than in
2023, this is not particularly significant.
Even without considering these numbers, it is all too easy to see that
politicians, and all political parties, consider "crime" a central, if
not the primary, problem. This is due, in some cases, to the historical
propensity of certain political parties to propagate and pursue a "law
and order" stance, which is an essential part of their ideological and
identity heritage. In other cases, there are parties convinced that
addressing petty crime rather than the problem of increasingly expensive
rents pays off more in electoral terms.
Disaggregated statistics support both of these positions. That is, the
numbers referring to the various types of reported crimes.
But, even in this case, the data can be interpreted through different
lenses. For example: in 2024, reports of theft (all types) increased by
3% compared to 2023 and accounted for 44% of total reports. However,
looking at the same data through different lenses reveals that thefts
(all types) decreased by 33% in 2024 compared to 2014. The same applies
to other crimes; numbers that can be worrying if viewed too closely, and
significantly less so if viewed from a distance.
Another clear example is the extensive coverage given by the media to
certain news stories regarding intentional homicides, even revisiting
events that occurred very recently. For years, data has confirmed that
Italy is one of the countries with the lowest number of intentional
homicides in Europe (second to last place), a figure that has been
decreasing year after year: between 2015 and 2024, homicides rose from
475 to 319. Even analyzing the data by distinguishing between male and
female victims, the result remains unchanged: in the former case, the
number rose from 330 to 206, and in the latter from 145 to 113.
Of course, there are also numbers that show clear upward trends. This is
the case with the increase in reports against young people, including
minors, and against foreigners, both for street or drug-related crimes.
And there is much to discuss and write about this.
Collecting and processing this type of data is certainly useful for
those who wish to study crime from a sociological perspective. It could
also be useful, in a society that seeks to do away with prison, to
understand the motivations of those who commit crimes and thus implement
prevention policies. Instead, we live in a social system in which this
data is used almost exclusively for propaganda, to advocate for
increased police numbers, the construction of new prisons, and calls for
harsher sentences. But worse can be done: the current government has
already introduced, with the so-called "Security Decree" (Legislative
Decree 20/2025), 14 new crimes, which will inevitably lead to an
increase in reports in the coming years, ultimately fueling social alarm
campaigns. Finally, there's a small risk of a "short circuit": on the
one hand, the governing parties have always tended to talk nonsense
about rising crime rates, while on the other, given that they've been in
power for three years, they could attribute the overall numbers, which
aren't all that tragic, to their own security policies. We're convinced
they'll do both. We have no doubts.
Pepsy
https://umanitanova.org/quando-i-numeri-sono-unopinione-dati-ufficiali-sulla-criminalita/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
regarding the number and type of crimes reported in the previous year,
has released these data exclusively to a newspaper. As always in these
cases, reading the numbers immediately becomes political, and the more
detailed the tables, the more open it is to bias interpretations based
on one's own ideas about the phenomenon of "crime." A term that
encompasses behaviors ranging from a triple homicide to the defacement
of a public building-different incidents lumped together to contribute
to the overall total. While we wait for the official data to be made
available, let's look at some of the data released in the previews.
A total of 2,380,653 crimes were reported by law enforcement to the
Judicial Authority in 2024. Over the course of (almost) twenty years,
the number rose from 2,771,490 in 2006, then increased to 2,892,155
(2013), and then began to decline to 1,900,624 (2019).
Looking at its overall trend, it can be said that there has been a
downward trend, even taking into account the anomaly of the two years of
COVID. It must always be kept in mind that this number represents the
total number of reports, not convictions, which, for obvious reasons, is
lower. Therefore, even if there were 1.7% more reports in 2024 than in
2023, this is not particularly significant.
Even without considering these numbers, it is all too easy to see that
politicians, and all political parties, consider "crime" a central, if
not the primary, problem. This is due, in some cases, to the historical
propensity of certain political parties to propagate and pursue a "law
and order" stance, which is an essential part of their ideological and
identity heritage. In other cases, there are parties convinced that
addressing petty crime rather than the problem of increasingly expensive
rents pays off more in electoral terms.
Disaggregated statistics support both of these positions. That is, the
numbers referring to the various types of reported crimes.
But, even in this case, the data can be interpreted through different
lenses. For example: in 2024, reports of theft (all types) increased by
3% compared to 2023 and accounted for 44% of total reports. However,
looking at the same data through different lenses reveals that thefts
(all types) decreased by 33% in 2024 compared to 2014. The same applies
to other crimes; numbers that can be worrying if viewed too closely, and
significantly less so if viewed from a distance.
Another clear example is the extensive coverage given by the media to
certain news stories regarding intentional homicides, even revisiting
events that occurred very recently. For years, data has confirmed that
Italy is one of the countries with the lowest number of intentional
homicides in Europe (second to last place), a figure that has been
decreasing year after year: between 2015 and 2024, homicides rose from
475 to 319. Even analyzing the data by distinguishing between male and
female victims, the result remains unchanged: in the former case, the
number rose from 330 to 206, and in the latter from 145 to 113.
Of course, there are also numbers that show clear upward trends. This is
the case with the increase in reports against young people, including
minors, and against foreigners, both for street or drug-related crimes.
And there is much to discuss and write about this.
Collecting and processing this type of data is certainly useful for
those who wish to study crime from a sociological perspective. It could
also be useful, in a society that seeks to do away with prison, to
understand the motivations of those who commit crimes and thus implement
prevention policies. Instead, we live in a social system in which this
data is used almost exclusively for propaganda, to advocate for
increased police numbers, the construction of new prisons, and calls for
harsher sentences. But worse can be done: the current government has
already introduced, with the so-called "Security Decree" (Legislative
Decree 20/2025), 14 new crimes, which will inevitably lead to an
increase in reports in the coming years, ultimately fueling social alarm
campaigns. Finally, there's a small risk of a "short circuit": on the
one hand, the governing parties have always tended to talk nonsense
about rising crime rates, while on the other, given that they've been in
power for three years, they could attribute the overall numbers, which
aren't all that tragic, to their own security policies. We're convinced
they'll do both. We have no doubts.
Pepsy
https://umanitanova.org/quando-i-numeri-sono-unopinione-dati-ufficiali-sulla-criminalita/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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