Thirty-three criminal proceedings in just six months, 38 victims and 17 minors involved. These are some of the figures at the centre of the joint session of Council Commissions II and IV, which met today in San Marino to take stock of gender-based and domestic violence. The discussion is still ongoing, based on the report presented by the State Secretariat for Health and statistics compiled by the Health Authority.
The first striking figure concerns criminal proceedings. In all of 2025, 47 had been registered: 29 were still pending, 14 had been shelved, two had ended with a first-instance ruling, one with a criminal decree, and one had been merged into another case file. In just the first six months of 2026, however, proceedings have already reached 33, of which 29 are pending, three have been shelved, and one is awaiting the outcome of an evidentiary hearing.
The comparison should be read with caution, since it places a full year alongside just half a year. Still, the scale of the phenomenon is clear. The most frequently prosecuted offences are mistreatment of family members and cohabitants, with 13 cases in the first half of 2026, and stalking</strong, holding steady at 12.
In 2025, the victims named in the documents that triggered proceedings numbered 49: 30 women, 15 minors and four men. By 30 June 2026, the count already stood at 38: 19 women, 17 minors and two men. Nearly one victim in two, therefore, had not yet turned 18.
Proceedings were most often triggered by reports from the Gendarmerie, with 12 in the first six months of the year, and by the services of the Social Security Institute, which rose to 11.
Further figures come from the Mental Health service. In 2025, 52 victims were reported, for a total of 63 reports. Nearly one case in two involved physical violence, while 23.1% involved psychological violence. The most affected age group was between 40 and 49. In the first six months of 2026, 11 victims were reported, and physical violence accounted for 54.5% of cases. Minors were present in nearly half of the situations, 45.5%.
The picture emerging from the Child Protection service is equally troubling. In 2025, there were 28 reports involving 32 children and adolescents. Among the 31 minors who were then formally assessed, the most affected age group was zero to four years, at 38.7%. The most common form was witnessed violence: children who are not directly attacked but see or hear violence being committed within the family.
By 30 June 2026, there had been 13 reports involving 14 minors. In this case, the most exposed age group is 15 to 17 years, accounting for 57.1%, while physical violence is recorded in 50% of cases. Active cases followed by the service numbered 33 at the end of 2025 and eight by mid-2026.
The report speaks of a rising trend in cases, but also urges that the data be read in light of a system that is now better and faster at identifying situations of violence. Since 2024, the responsibilities of the various services have been clarified, and coordination between the judiciary, law enforcement, health services, Child Protection and schools has become closer. This may have brought to light episodes that in the past would have gone unnoticed.
Also on the table now is the development of a single software system to collect and cross-reference data from the anti-violence network. The platform’s analysis phase concluded last March; the next step will be developing the system itself. Meanwhile, debate in the joint commissions continues, with figures that capture a phenomenon still very much present on Titano as well.
