Italy: Youths Born Abroad Commit Nearly Half of All Crime in Age Group

Newly released figures published by the Italian government have revealed that nearly half of all recorded crime committed by individuals in the age range of 14 to 24 last year was carried out by foreign-born youths, even though they compose slightly over 10% of the population in this age range.

The data, published by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) at the beginning of this month, revealed that in the age group between 14 and 17 years old, foreign-born residents—despite making up 9.6 percent of the population—committed 50.2% of the thefts, 48.1% of the robberies, 47.7% of the sexual violence, and 40.4% of assaults, the Milan-based newspaper Libero Quotidiano reports.

The trend was also observed in the 18-24 age group, where foreign-born residents—despite composing 11.2% of the population—were found to have committed 89.7% of crimes involving exploitation of prostitution, 55.8% of sexual violence, 52.6% of robberies, 52.4% of thefts, 43.6% of malicious injury cases.

The figures, which merely compare crime rates between Italians and foreign-born residents—who are in the same age group, indicate that the latter is accountable for a vastly disproportionate percentage of the overall crime rate.

In a separate report, ISTAT notes that the proportion of crimes carried out by the country’s foreign-born population has been increasing considerably and consistently over the past few decades. While foreign-born individuals represented 2.5% of those accused of a crime in 1990, that number ballooned to 24% in 2009.

The same phenomenon has been observed and recorded across a number of Western European countries, including Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, and Finland, all of which have welcomed unprecedented numbers of foreigners from alien cultures in the past several decades.

Months ago, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) published crime figures from 2021 which revealed that foreign nationals accounted for a massively disproportionate share of the country’s violent crime, making up 37.7% of suspects arrested for violent crimes such as assault, manslaughter, and murder, despite comprising 12% of the population.