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.
Since when have stronger punishments deterred crimes?
Uhh… what about this mindset - “glad this menace to society isn’t getting released after 5 years”
Also isn’t killing a person based on an immutable characteristic (race, sex, etc) already a hate crime? In the US if someone kills a woman or girl primarily because of their sex that is a hate crime on top of being first degree murder (which is a serious enough offense as it is).
That’s a fair question. It’s complicated. Harsher laws don’t always stop crime, but they can send a strong message and hold people accountable. Plus, the real deterrence often comes from how seriously society treats these issues, not just the law itself. It’s messy, but I think it’s part of the solution.
From what I have gathered, when I read through some criminology papers, it’s less about the severity of punishment and more about being caught and prosecuted which is more effective as a deterrence.
The death penalty for example has been proven in numerous studies to be ineffective.
Consequently, increasing the severity of punishments can become useless and possibly more based in a (public) desire for revenge.
We, as a more or less civilised society, should also be mindful about why we prosecute someone and how we want to treat people in the long run. For example, just imprisioning someone for life – apart from being ethically debatable – will not solve problems but only move them somewhere else.