The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul, 2011) requires the States Parties to provide \u201cspecialised support services, both immediate and in the short and long term, for every victim of any act of violence covered by the Convention\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Italy ratified the Convention, the National Action Plans against violence marked an important step forward in improving knowledge of the system for protecting women who are victims of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2017, Istat has started collecting data related to the Protection System for women victims of violence. In 2018, surveys were launched on the services provided by Anti-violence Centres (AVC), as well as a similar survey on Shelters. In 2020, a statistical survey was carried out on users of Anti-violence Centres, together with the dissemination of data related to the public helpline number (1522) against violence and stalking. These surveys are conducted in cooperation with the Department for Equal Opportunities (DPO) at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and with the Regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, Law No.53 of 2022, \u201cProvisions on statistics on gender-based violence\u201d, requires Istat to carry out these surveys in order to understand the characteristics of users who turn to Anti-violence Centres, including the relationship between perpetrator and victim, the type of violence suffered, the presence of children, and the types of assistance provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Istat and the Department for Equal Opportunities make available, through a specific information system, an integrated and regularly updated framework of official information on violence against women in Italy. The aim is to provide high-quality information and statistical indicators that offer an overall view of the phenomenon, through the integration of data from various sources (Istat, DPO, Ministries, Regions, the National Research Council, Anti-violence Centres, Shelters, and other services such as the public helpline 1522 against violence and Stalking).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Focus concerns the services and organizational features of Anti-violence Centres and analyzes data related to women who have started a pathway out of violence through them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A total of 193 Anti-violence Centres also operate through local branches, representing more than half (53%) of the responding Centres, with a total of 702 local branches, an average of four for each Centre with local branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2024, women who were victims of violence could rely on a network of 409 active Anti-violence Centres (AVCs) across Italy. These centres were distributed as follows: 37.2% in the North (22.0% in the North-West and 15.2% in the North-East), 30.6% in the South (125 AVCs), 21.0% in the Centre (86 AVCs), and 11.2% in the Islands (46 AVCs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regions with the highest number of active AVCs in absolute terms were Campania (64 AVCs, equal to 15.6% of the total), Lombardia (57 AVCs, 13.9%), and Lazio, with 45 AVCs representing 11.0% of the total number of Anti-violence Centres in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the number of active centres is related to the resident female population, the availability of Anti-violence Centres in Italy amounts to 0.14 centres per 10,000 women (Figure 1). This figure is higher in the South (0.18) and lower in the North-West (0.11) and North-East (0.11). The availability in the Centre (0.14) and in the Islands (0.14) is in line with the national average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A total of 364 Anti-violence Centres responded to the survey, with a response rate stable compared to 2023. All the data analyzed below refer to the responses provided by these 364 Centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Centres were contacted by 61,370 women, with an annual average of 169 women per AVC. Higher values were recorded in the North-West (241) and in the North-East (238), while the lowest average was observed among CAVs in the South (72).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The analysis shows that Anti-violence Centres mainly operate within areas of municipal or inter-municipal competence (45.3%), while a further 33.8% extend their activities at the provincial or inter-provincial level. A smaller share (20.9%) report regional or inter-regional competence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At territorial level, significant differences emerge across the country. In the North-West and in the South, a focus on municipal\/inter-municipal intervention prevails, in both cases at around 50%. The North-East records the highest percentage of AVCs with provincial or inter-provincial competence, while the Islands stand out for a higher concentration of centres with regional or supra-regional competence (35.5%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In particular, in Sardinia more than half of the AVCs (58.3%) report regional competence. A similar pattern is observed in other areas: in Calabria, 69.2% of AVCs operate at regional or supra-regional level (of which 61.5% exclusively at regional level), while in Lazio 42.2% of Centres have regional or inter-regional competence. Lazio also records the highest percentage of AVCs declaring supra-regional competence (28.9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AVCs do not operate only at their main offices but also extend their territorial coverage through a network of anti-violence local branches distributed across the territory. More than half of the AVCs (53%) rely on the activity of these branches, with the highest values recorded among Centres with inter-municipal (62.6%) and provincial (59.6%) territorial competence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, there are 702 operational local branches across the country, with an average of almost four branches per AVC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most Anti-violence Centres (AVCs) (56.9%) operate in premises provided free of charge. Fewer than one in ten Centres own their premises, while about one-third (33.5%) pay rent. Renting is more common among AVCs in the Islands (45.2%) and the North-West (43%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The premises of AVCs are largely (79.9%) equipped with measures to remove architectural barriers, with the highest value recorded in the Islands (90.3%) and the lowest in the North-East (66.1%). All Centres have spaces suitable for carrying out various activities while ensuring the privacy<\/em> of users. These figures have improved compared to 2017, when 86.8% of the Centres had such measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking jointly at the presence of accessibility measures and the type of premises, it is observed that among AVCs operating in owned premises, the share of Centres with fewer barriers is slightly higher (82.4%) compared to those in rented premises (78.7%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regional differences are evident: in the Islands and the Centre, the highest percentage of AVCs with accessibility measures is found among Centres operating in rented or free-of-charge premises, while owned premises show lower accessibility values (Figure 2). In the North-East, owned premises are better equipped than those rented or provided free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work of Anti-violence Centres (AVCs) is supported by 6,994 female workers, of whom 3,390 (48.5%) provide their service entirely on a voluntary basis. The contribution of voluntary work is higher among AVCs in the North-West (59.7%) and the Islands (54.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n On average, each AVC has 19 female workers, with the highest number in the North-West (28.6) and the lowest in the South (11.3). The staff at AVCs includes a variety of professional profiles: coordinators and\/or managers and reception staff are present in almost all Centres (98.1% and 98.4%, respectively), as well as psychologists (95.9%) and lawyers (94.8%). Less represented professional profiles include social workers (59.6%), educators (54.9%), cultural mediators (44.5%), employment counsellors (50.3%), and healthcare staff (10.4%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding transversal roles, almost three-quarters (73.9%) of AVCs have staff responsible for administrative tasks, 57.9% include communication experts\u2014highlighting the Centres\u2019 work in prevention and training\u2014and 33% have auxiliary staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the North-West, there is a higher presence of operators (Figure 3), while the South engages more psychologists and social workers, and the Islands stand out for having the highest number of lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering all professional profiles, each female worker at a AVC supports an average of about nine women seeking help, rising to ten in Central Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 84.6% of the Anti-violence Centres organized specific training\/refresher courses for their staff: 96.1% of the Centres provided training on the gender approach and reception methodology, 93.2% on how to approach victims of specific forms of violence, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and early marriages, 79.9% on risk assessment, 77.9% on the Istanbul Convention, and 70.1% on women\u2019s human rights, for example the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women <\/em>(CEDAW). More specific training topics are less frequent, such as the reception of migrant women (which involved just over half of the Centres\u2019 initiatives, 53.9%) and the reception of women with disabilities, an issue addressed by less than one third (30.2%) of the Centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On average, the Centres that provided training organized about four courses per year for paid staff, with the highest value recorded in the North-East (10). The number of courses organized for new volunteers is much lower. On average, less than one course (0.5) per Centre, with slightly higher values in the Centre, South, and Islands (0.7). On average, each of the 767 new volunteers involved in the training courses received just over seven hours of training (7.4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the national level, the average number of training hours for paid staff was similar: the more than 1,500 paid operators involved completed an average of 7.2 hours of training. Among AVCs in the Islands, the average number of training hours for new volunteers was higher (12.3), while AVCs in the North-East recorded a higher average number of hours for paid staff (10.3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n To ensure the quality of the services provided, in nine out of ten CAVs, supervision of activities and the quality of relationships within the team and with the women supported was carried out in\u05da 2024. In more than three quarters of cases (76.6%), this supervision took place at least monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weekly supervision, carried out by 9% of CAVs at the national level, is more common among Centres in the Islands (20%) and in Central Italy (16%). However, it should be noted that 26.7% of CAVs in Sicily conduct supervision every six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A wide range of services is offered to women, both directly by the AVC and in a coordinated way by the Centre and local services. In 2024, the minimum services required by Article 4 of the State-Regions and Autonomous Provinces Agreement (the law that defines the minimum requirements for accredited Anti-violence Centres and Shelters and recipients of national funding) were provided by all AVCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These include listening services (100%), reception (99.7%), legal support (99.7%), psychological support (99.7%), and guidance\/accompaniment to other services within the protection network (99.5%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n To support the specific needs of women, Anti-violence Centres also offer other services: 96.5% of Centres provide job orientation services, and 83.5% offer linguistic and cultural mediation services (Figure 4). All Centres indicated that the services provided are free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost all CAVs (99.4%) ensure a personalized pathway out violence, designed and agreed upon with the women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the main services, 45.9% of Centres have set up self-help groups, with a higher incidence among Centres in the South (60.2%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 80.5% of Anti-violence Centres (293) organized external training activities, with higher percentages in the North-East (91.9%) and the lowest value in Sicily (52.6%). The recipients of the training activities, both institutional and non-institutional, are mainly social workers (67.6% of Centres), healthcare professionals (53.6%), and volunteer associations (53.2%). This is followed by training for law enforcement (47.1%) and lawyers (40.3%). Training for trade unions is less common, carried out by 19.8% of Centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compared to the national average, Anti-violence Centres in the North-West and in the Centre provide less training to social workers (Figure 5), law enforcement, and lawyers. In the North-East, Centres stand out for higher values across all groups involved, particularly with regard to healthcare and social workers and trade unions. Centres in the South focus more on training the legal sector (law enforcement and lawyers). In the Islands, Centres show the highest shares of training for social workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AVCs are also highly committed to prevention and awareness-raising activities: 96.7% organized interventions in schools, 82.1% carried out systematic collection of documentation and data on the phenomenon of violence, and 98.4% promoted cultural initiatives aimed at prevention, information, and raising public awareness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are 409 active Centres in 2024, +1.2% compared to 2023 and +45.6% compared to 2017 (the year of the first survey), when there were 281<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4082],"tags":[3458,3315,3907,3286,3668,3330,2969,3424],"regione":[],"tema":[4064],"class_list":["post-138008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-crimes","tag-criminal","tag-denunce-en","tag-harrassment","tag-press-note","tag-security","tag-report","tag-violence","tema-justice-and-security"],"meta_fields":{"data_pubblicazione":"","descrizioneperiodo":"","titolobreve":"","news":"","news_rss":"","sottotitolo":""},"acf":[],"wpml_current_locale":"en_US","wpml_translations":[],"tags-info":[{"id":3458,"label":"crimes","slug":"crimes"},{"id":3315,"label":"criminal-justice","slug":"criminal"},{"id":3907,"label":"denunce","slug":"denunce-en"},{"id":3286,"label":"harrassment","slug":"harrassment"},{"id":3668,"label":"press note","slug":"press-note"},{"id":3330,"label":"security","slug":"security"},{"id":2969,"label":"statistics report","slug":"report"},{"id":3424,"label":"violence","slug":"violence"}],"categories-info":[{"id":4082,"label":"Press release","slug":"press-release"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138008"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138015,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138008\/revisions\/138015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138008"},{"taxonomy":"regione","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regione?post=138008"},{"taxonomy":"tema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tema?post=138008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Almost 7,000 women support the work of the AVCs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
More than four out of five AVCs have set up self-help groups<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Expanded awareness-raising and training activities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n