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.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    They’re a protected class because they’re singled out for violence because of their class. And it’s a real world problem not a logic quiz. Misogyny and misandry are not equivalent in reality the way they are in the dictionary.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      And it’s a real world problem not a logic quiz.

      Seriously.

      I am massively disappointed with the number of dumb chuds on this site who are looking at this like a goddamn fucking logic trick and feeling some kind of personal offense to the fact that some men, somewhere, are committing a disproportional level of a specific kind of crime.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          28 minutes ago

          I haven’t seen a valid argument in this entire post, just a lot of people who think that the law should apply evenly in all situations.

          But nothing works that way. Everything we do in all facets of society are responsive and proportional.

          I’m not seeing how anyone is being harmed by making it easier to prosecute men who commit violence against women when it’s a massively disproportionate problem. I’m not seeing a better alternative, I’m not seeing anything but a lot of guys in this post who are obviously hurt by this but can’t explain why. Maybe add value to the argument by making an argument and explaining why it bothers you.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Does that make hate crime murder against men less worth prosecuting as such? Why shouldn’t the legal definition be symmetrical?

      • gbzm@piefed.social
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        30 minutes ago

        Yes. Violence from the oppressed is not the same as violence from the opressor. In an unjust reality, law should strive for equity, not equality.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Why shouldn’t the legal definition be symmetrical?

        Because the legal system isn’t symmetrical, that’s not a thing, that’s not how anything outside of fucking physics work. The system responds to what people are doing in the material world. If bank robberies start going up, they are going to adjust the law to make it more efficient to process and punish bank robbers.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          You’re avoiding the question. I haven’t seen you give a real reason why it shouldn’t be symmetrical yet. I know that the motivation is greater to prosecute more common crimes, but ideally why would it not be symmetrical?

          • ameancow@lemmy.world
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            41 minutes ago

            Because the real world isn’t symmetrical, there are millions of factors that impact trends, attitudes, cultures and so on. If you don’t respond to issues appropriate to that scaling you will have spikes in problems. This is very basic, this isn’t even sociology, it’s just how everything works. If you don’t enforce building codes in an area where more buildings are being made cheap, that area will have too many buildings that fall over, whereas areas where the building codes are being adhered to don’t need the extra resources diverted to keeping a non-existent problem in check.

            If you drink more milk than juice, you should buy more milk.

            I am struggling to understand how this is a hard concept to grasp. Do you have an emotional or personal connection to this topic that is making it hard to see practicality in how our entire society is built?

          • gbzm@piefed.social
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            1 hour ago

            How about you tell us why the legal system should be symmetrical if the situation isn’t? Why do the rich pay proportionally more tax than the poor? People are trying to make an unjust factual reality more just by acknowledging injustice is why.

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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              58 minutes ago

              Being rich is not an unchangeable identity nor a protected class; it is the result of one’s actions, and actions, unlike identity, must be treated differently by the law.

              The legal situation should be symmetrical because for any individual victim, the frequency of crime done to various identity groups does not matter.

              Related example: Rape is more commonly done to women. But male victims of rape should still be protected against it.

              Unrelated hypothetical: Let’s say 80% of thievery was committed against women. Should men not also be protected against this crime just because it happens more often to another group of people?

              I suppose you could make the argument that “the situation” is still not symmetrical, because women face more hate in their daily lives. But I fail to see how this should apply to the crime of murder or the punishment for its motivation.

              It’s certainly true that femicide is a more important protection, as the majority of gender-motivated murder is committed against women (I have no proof for this, but it seems everyone here agrees on this). But that is not a good argument not to provide other genders with the same protections from hate-motivated murder in the form of longer sentences as well.

              I have provided my argument, as asked. So again, I ask: Why in your opinion would it be worse to provide this protection to all genders?

      • ISuperabound@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        What would give you that idea? What is it with folks who think equality is ignoring an actual problem?

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          If the hate crime part of the law were symmetrical, not only would that still handle the problem of femicide like the current law does, it would also handle hate crimes against other genders. Not making it symmetrical ignores more problems.

          • ISuperabound@lemmy.world
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            3 hours ago

            The currentl law doesn’t appropriately “handle” the problem of femicide…or else it wouldn’t be an outsized problem.

            Symmetry is the problem. The justice system anywhere isn’t “one size fits all” for murder. There are already categories for infanticide, assisted suicide, accidental death, indirect murder, etc. It would be very very nice if there was an appropriate category for the infinite motivations for murder…but that’s not realistic.

            Femicide is a problem in Italy so they passed a law. If males being targeted was a problem…they’d pass that law. Making an appropriate category for an existing phenomenon doesn’t mean it “ignores” anything else, as you’re claiming.

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              Yes, femicide is clearly a larger problem that has greater motivation to address it. But would it not be equally easy, and overall better, to address all categories of gender-motivated murder?

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Idk probably less and so the law against hate crimes for men would be used less than the one against them for women. Again, why would you not treat them the same in each individual case? If 80% of thievery was committed against women, would you not also prosecute the 20% committed against men just the same?

          • gbzm@piefed.social
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            1 hour ago

            Because the situation is not symmetrical. Acknowledging that there is an oppressed side is not the same thing as denying the privileged one. Pretending murder will not be prosecuted in Italy if the victim is male is just you larping and not at all what enshrining feminicide in law means. It’s just aggravating circumstances. Murderers of males will be prosecuted for murder without the aggravating circumstances of misogyny as a motive because it wouldn’t make any sense. And misandry is not the societal problem that misogyny is, so it would be kind of insulting to make them a protected class.

            You’re acting like a four year old whose disabled brother got a wheelchair and who wants one of his own, saying “it’s not fair”. It is.

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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              1 hour ago

              Perhaps I was not clear. I am referring to the prosecution being “the same” in the sense that a gender-based motivation in the murder of a man would qualify it as a hate crime. Of course men can still be prosecuted for murder either way; surely you didn’t think that’s what I was saying?

              And misandry is not the societal problem that misogyny is, so it would be kind of insulting to make them a protected class.

              Not nearly on the same scale, no. But should it not be protected against at all? Femicide is certainly a more pressing matter to enshrine into law, but we might as well make it as comprehensive of a protection as we can/should while we’re doing this. As far as I know, most hate crime laws (at least in the US) actually are symmetrical in this way. If one of the identities being protected is more vulnerable to crime, the hate crime protection will be used to protect them more often. Seems logical to me.

              You’re acting like a four year old whose disabled brother got a wheelchair and who wants one of his own, saying “it’s not fair”. It is.

              Is there a need for insults here?

              • gbzm@piefed.social
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                23 minutes ago

                It’s not an insult, it’s an apt analogy. This argument is childish. In an unjust reality, law should strive for equity, not equality. The US is not a model for how hate should be treated.

          • ISuperabound@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            At no point did anyone suggest that they weren’t prosecuting murder against men, nor did they suggest they would do so with less effort. All this law does is allow the courts to take misogyny into account so that motive isn’t ignored or downplayed during the charging proces.

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              Yes, they prosecute murder for both genders. I’m asking why the hate crime aspect that increases the sentence is not the same.

              To be clear, I think the femicide change is a good thing, just unnecessarily restrictive.

              • ISuperabound@lemmy.world
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                3 hours ago

                It doesn’t necessarily increase or decrease the sentence.

                Are you asking why genders are different, and why violence isn’t equal? That’s a very deep topic the law is attempting to partially address.

                • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                  2 hours ago

                  You are incorrect. The relevant laws can be found in the Italian penal code. Article 575 sets the minimum punishment for homicide at 21 years. Article 577 lists circumstances that would upgrade this sentence to a life sentence, and the suggested change is to add femicide to this list. So yes, it necessarily increases the sentence.

                  I am not asking why genders are different and violence is not equal (this should be obvious to anyone listening to the women’s rights movement in the last 30 years). My argument has nothing to do with the relative frequency of crimes against different genders. I’m asking why a murder motivated by hate for someone’s gender would not be treated the same in any case, as it is with most identity-based hate crime laws. Do you think that because one identity group has more crime of a certain type done against them, they should be treated differently in each individual case about that crime?

    • RamRabbit@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      If someone murdered a male due to their sex, would you treat that any differently than someone murdering a female due to their sex?

      • kurwa@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        And what if the moon was made of cottage cheese? When then??? 🤔🤔🤔

        Downvote me if you’re a cry baby man :)

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              You know we can see when you edit messages lmao?

              It’s good to be wrong sometimes, if you always avoid the consequences by trying to head off disagreement (downvotes) you are doing yourself and anyone you talk to in the future a disservice. Saving face means losing the truth.

              • kurwa@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                Good. I’m not wrong.

                Give me one fuckin example let alone widespread anti men crimes you fuckin loser.

                • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                  56 minutes ago

                  It’s clear you don’t understand my point. I am always willing to argue in good faith if you are willing to understand what I am saying, but since you are not interested in doing that I will not be responding to bad faith arguments.

        • Soulg@ani.social
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          14 hours ago

          It’s not whataboutism, it’s the very obvious logical followup question. The mistake you’re making is assuming by default that the question means they hate women or some such nonsense.

          • gbzm@piefed.social
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            1 hour ago

            Reading other comments they’ve made, that person is definitely not a feminist. But alright I’ll give the painful answer to the whataboutism: yes.

            Yes, in a society where misogyny is rampant one should consider misogyny differently than misandry. Same for racism. If you take a less extreme case than murder, a white person using a derogatory term for a black people will get canceled and labeled racist, at worse a black person using a derogatory term for white people will get laughed at, and people will assume any actual racial hate is a response to the systemic racism they’ve experienced. And most likely they’ll be right. Even if logically those are two sides of the same coin, if your coin is unbalanced applying every correction to both sides will never work.

            The asymmeyrical social reality informs what people feel about hate, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t inform lawmakers decision in trying to correct this asymmetry.