The Journal of Interpersonal Violence has recently published a study conducted by Dr. Sarah Gino, of the Department of Health Sciences of the Università del Piemonte Orientale, and by the group led by Professor Georgia Zara of the Department of Psychology of the Università di Torino, which addresses the most topical problem of violence against women.

In particular, the study entitled 'Violence against prostitutes and non-prostitutes: an analysis of frequency, variety and severity' (website) takes into account 330 cases of feminicide that occurred in Turin and its province between 1970 and 2020, assessing the contexts and motivations for the crimes.

It found, as expected and in line with previous studies by the same research group, that most victims (prostitutes and non-prostitutes) were killed by a man they knew, and that the type and intensity of the relationship influenced the way the violence was committed, so much so that the risk of overkill was four times higher when the violence occurred against victims who had an intimate relationship with the murderer.

"It is by looking not only at the type of relationship, but especially at its intensity and quality,' Dr. Gino stresses, 'that an accurate differential risk assessment can be planned and that informative and preventive intervention measures can be implemented. Strategies to reduce the risk of feminicide, in fact, should include investments in partner violence prevention, risk assessments and mainly information campaigns, which aim to support women who are more often exposed to violence, institutional neglect and social contempt'.

This is the first research work carried out in Italy on this subject and one of the few in the world that covers such a wide time span, analysing cases from both a forensic and a psycho-criminological point of view.