While the story of Giulia Cecchettin is preparing to become a film and while a proposal to abolish the crime of femicide comes from Italian politics, Istat published today its report «Violence against women from childhood to adulthood». And the data are not reassuring.
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Survey methodology
In its third edition, the report focused on violence suffered by women before the age of 16. Conducted between March 2025 and January 2026, the study states that it used a «harmonized methodology» with the European survey on gender-based violence «Childhood violence and its lifelong impact», conducted by Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union) between 2021 and 2024 and adopted as a benchmark. The age of the sample analyzed ranges from 16 to 75 years.
The research starts from the numbers related to episodes of abuse suffered before the age of 16, then analyzes their link with violence suffered in adulthood. Particular attention is also given to the role of witnessed violence, considered a «risk factor for exposure to other forms of violence». In addition, the 2026 edition observes physical abuses suffered «by any perpetrator and some forms of psychological violence, such as humiliations by parents», Istat specifies.
The numbers emerged
15.3% of Italian women, about 3 million people, declare to have suffered at least one form of physical or sexual violence before turning 16. The European figure stops at 11.4%, that is over 244 thousand women. Specifically, just under 1 million and 650 thousand Italian women (8.2%) have been victims of sexual violence.
Again, the European percentage is lower: 3.4%, almost 73 thousand people. Compared to the previous Istat survey, however, the rate of child sexual violence in our country has dropped from 10.6% to 7.8%, limiting the comparison to the 16-70 age group examined in 2014.
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