Between 2018 and 2023, 11,141 Italian women were reportedly raped by foreigners, according to research by Italian journalist Francesca Totolo, who revealed these figures in her recent book La Vite Delle Donne Contano (“Women’s Lives Matter”).
Totolo claims the statistics from the Italian interior ministry highlight an alarming trend: “In the European countries most affected by migration flows, foreigners are relatively overrepresented among the perpetrators of crimes against women, from murder to sexual violence,” she said in an interview with Breizh-Info.
The findings indicate that foreign nationals, who make up 9 percent of Italy’s population, are responsible for approximately 38 percent of violent sexual crimes, making them six times more likely to commit such crimes than Italian nationals.
Totolo pointed to similar trends in France, noting that in 2019, “46 percent of serious sexual violence on public transport in the Île-de-France region was committed by foreigners, who make up 15 percent of the population living there.”
This figure is actually out of date with Remix News reporting last year that 69 percent of violent robberies and other violent crimes, including sexual assaults, on public transport in the greater Paris region of Île-de-France were perpetrated by foreign nationals, citing the annual figures of the SSMSI, the statistics bureau of the French interior ministry.
Totolo also expressed concerns over media treatment of these crimes, criticizing what she views as a selective reporting bias that downplays cases involving foreign assailants.
“We have the very clear impression that not all rape and harassment cases have the same weight and that they do not receive the same level of media coverage. Some are considered less serious than others,” she stated.
Totolo argues that if an Italian citizen were to rape a foreign national, the incident would likely become a national scandal, whereas crimes involving migrants or refugees are “portrayed less drastically and are ultimately seen as understandable.”
“This tendency to justify is dangerous because it prevents us from seeing clearly what is happening,” Totolo warned.
She claimed that Italy’s current immigration policies and thus employed by much of Western Europe are enabling “the massacre of European women” and argued that downplaying these crimes perpetuates harm.
