Verona is not too big and not too small, not too poor to consist only of socially disadvantaged areas, and not too rich. It’s not in southern Italy either. And: There are also gang rapes in Verona.
Verona also has so-called baby gangs, as criminal youth gangs are called in Italy. A young mother in the city center says she is very concerned about the security situation, and yes, sexual violence is no longer just a southern phenomenon.
No kissing scandal in Italy
The young mother is certain that nine out of ten women in Verona would not report sexual violence because the police did not investigate vigorously enough.
Legend:
There are also so-called baby gangs in Verona. The historic center of the city is pictured.
SRF
And what does she think of the kissing scandal in Spain, in which the president of the national football association kissed a player on the mouth against her will? “It’s not that bad,” says the woman, “that could happen in the exuberance of emotions.”
What can you take away from this random conversation on the street? Perhaps a lack of sensitivity to sexual violence, a certain machismo, stronger than in Spain. Only since 1996 has sexual violence – including rape – been considered a crime against a person, emphasizes Marisa Mazza, President of Isolina, an NGO against femicide. Before that it was only punished as an offense against public order and customs and was punished accordingly more leniently.
Psychologist Giuliana Guadagnini, who treats victims of youth violence, often sexualized youth violence, in her practice, confirms that the Spanish kissing scandal did not cause any major waves.
Legend:
Psychologist Giuliana Guadagnini observes that the Spanish kissing scandal did not cause any major waves in Italy.
ZVG/Giuliana Guadagnini
And an analogous case in Italy would cause much less of a stir than in Spain because a coach or president would be viewed as a fatherly figure. “We are Mammoni and Paponi,” always close to the family, laughs Guadagnini.
Mammoni and Paponi
This leads to the question: What influence does the patriarchal structure of the Italian family have on sexual violence? The sociologist Paola di Nicola believes this is an outdated myth.
The only parental structure that is actually fundamental in Italy and on which one can rely is not the parents, but the grandparents.
A third of households today consist of single, mostly older, widowed people. Another third are childless or the children have already moved out and for the rest it is primarily the grandparents who are involved in raising them: “The only parental structure that is actually fundamental in Italy and that you can rely on is not the parents, but the grandparents. This large parental and family structure no longer exists in everyday life.”
The man’s crisis
For Paola di Nicola, on the one hand, the crisis of men and masculinity – widespread throughout Western Europe, but perhaps a more sensitive issue in Italy – is a factor of sexual violence. On the other hand, there is also a lack of education.
Legend:
The sociologist Paola di Nicola.
ZVG/Paola di Nicola
There is a young generation who never heard no from their parents, who got everything they wanted and who now take what they want.
Sexual violence also from the middle class
Di Nicola therefore also observes sexual violence among middle-class young people. This also happens everywhere. But the mother of a rape victim waiting two weeks before filing a police report, as happened in Caivano near Naples, would hardly happen in Switzerland.
Paola di Nicola knows that this is actually a southern Italian phenomenon: the area is under the control of the mafia, the perpetrators are from the mafia’s environment, and the mother has been threatened.
The Tiktok priest
One person who knows the youth in Verona is Pastor Ambrogio Mazzai. He is 32 years old, a “digital native,” and goes by the nickname Don Tiktok because he constantly communicates with many boys on social media.
Legend:
The Tiktok priest Ambrogio Mazzai, called Don Tiktok.
SRF
Yes, there is still a tradition in Italy that taboos sexual violence because reporting it brings shame on the family. Otherwise, Don Tiktok does not see the causes of sexualized youth violence in typical Italian structures. Bullying on social media, pornography on the internet, and the violent culture of so-called trap music mean that young men see women as objects and do not “see the entire 360 degrees of a person”.
Legend:
A mural with references to the US rap and trap music scene on a wall in Verona Porta Nuova.
SRF
What is typically Italian about gang rape? This is a tricky question. As mentioned, there are structures and social traditions that actually promote sexual violence. There are also strong drivers of sexual violence, such as cyberbullying, which are not limited to Italy.