Milano: the State Police for the fight against gender violence

Milano: the State Police for the fight against gender violence.

They are 131 warnings for domestic violence and for stalking issued by the Commissioner of Milano Giuseppe Petronzi from the beginning of the year until today.
It is administrative measures to protect victims of gender violence which is often, but not only, consumed within the home. There are some three types: for domestic violence, by deeds persecutors and for cyberbullying. In the first case, the Warning is issued on the initiative of the Police Commissioner mainly on the basis of the notes drawn up by the State Police patrols who intervene for episodes of domestic dispute, even if the report can come from anyone, with a guarantee of anonymity, such as, for example , your GP or your neighbour. In the second case, a party's request is necessary and is an alternative to a lawsuit as in the case of cyberbullying.

I recipients of warning they are not just men, they are not just abusive husbands or ex-partners who are not resigned to the end of the relationship but, in some cases, they are also women and children who have committed acts of violence against their parents, clients who persecute professionals and, indeed, there is no shortage of cases of persecutory acts carried out by strangers.

In relation to this last hypothesis, a new law has recently been issued warning measure towards a homeless man who, having fallen in love with the young volunteer who had offered him her help, began stalking her for entire days and interfering in her private life.

The warning is not a "simple administrative act"; Behind every measure notified there is teamwork. Behind every situation, each different from the other, there is the work of policemen and women from the Minors and Vulnerable Victims Office of the Anti-Crime Division of the Police Headquarters of Milano: they have an age between 28 and 50 years, are constantly trained, pay attention to detail and are above all empathetic. Every day, they select the party requests and the notes drawn up by the police officers and other police offices present in the area, they analyze all those situations of concrete and current danger or which could become such, they speak with the victims, they often become their point of reference, while remaining objective and professional.

La notification of the Warning it is not simply the delivery of the notified document but, above all, an injunction addressed to the person warned to cease any violent or persecutory conduct, with the aim of interrupting the escalation of violence that can lead to inevitable consequences. The objective is to act effectively on abusers, to stop persecutory behavior in its tracks, to interrupt the cycle of violence, also providing concrete help to abused and stalkerized subjects.

Basic è the help also provided to the perpetrator of the criminal conduct who is invited to undertake a specialist treatment course aimed at stimulating understanding of the negative value of the conduct, so as to avoid the risk of relapse and more serious episodes. This has been possible from 2018 to today thanks to Zeus Protocol, stipulated for the first time by the Police Headquarters of Milano and by the Italian Center for the Promotion of Mediation. Since 4 April 2018, the date of the signing of the Protocol, out of a total of 878 warnings, 750 warnings have been invited to undertake a treatment path, with a percentage of around 70% of subjects who have decided to join the path.

Failure to comply with the warning, in the case of persecutory acts, ensures that the Commission of further facts determine the ex officio prosecution, regardless of the filing of a complaint by the victim, with communication of the illicit facts to the Judicial Authority, with an aggravated penalty; in the case of gender violence, the conduct is assessed for the purposes of social dangerousness.

Anti-Crime Division prevention activity on the subject of gender violence it is not limited only to the warning: from the beginning of the year to today there have been 11 proposals advanced special surveillance, for subjects guilty of crimes of mistreatment and stalking, to the Court of Milano – Autonomous Prevention Measures Section. This is a so-called "qualified" dangerousness which, according to the law, allows the application of special surveillance to subjects suspected of persecutory acts and mistreatment in the family.