Search

In recent decades, the issue of violence against women has increasingly drawn the attention of international and national legislators and policymakers. The term "femicide" became widespread in the early 2000s and was incorporated into the criminal codes of several countries. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent social distancing measures raised significant concerns about their impact on women's safety. This study examines the effect of COVID-19 confinement measures on femicide trends in Italy, a country which adopted stringent COVID-19 confinement measures and, since 2019, implemented new legislation to counteract violence against women. Using two data sets—one from the Italian Ministry of Interior containing 1,382 cases of female homicides (2013–2022) and another from Italian NGOs detailing 1,253 femicides according to media coverage (2012–2022)—the study employs autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) analysis to assess monthly trends alongside the stringency index for COVID-19 containment efforts. The findings reveal that, although overall femicide rates remained stable during lockdowns, there was a significant shift in victim–perpetrator relationships. Specifically, from March to May 2020, there was a decline in femicides by former partners, offset by an increase in those by cohabiting partners. These results underscore the complexity of femicide and the need for further research on various facets of violence against women. This includes the potential escalation of physical and psychological violence during lockdowns, influenced by forced proximity and substance abuse in domestic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic media are playing an increasingly important role in the exercise of full citizenship. But globalisation and new technologies affect citizenship in many ways. In this context, the migrants, thanks to their media especially, actively contribute to the reinterpretation of the notion and practices of citizenship. This paper is based on two comparative research studies on the Turkish-language media and the Muslim media in Britain and France. It tries to show how the ethnic media have brought new opportunities of citizenry to minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Predicting disease progression in patients with the first clinical episode suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS) is crucial for personalized therapeutic approaches. This study aimed to develop the EUMUS score for accurately estimating the risk of early evidence of disease activity and progression (EDA). Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 221 patients with a first clinical MS episode collected from four Italian MS centers. Various variables including socio-demographics, clinical features, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, evoked potentials, and brain MRI were considered. A prognostic multivariate regression model was identified to develop the EUMUS score. The optimal cutoff for predicting the transition from no evidence of disease activity (NEDA3) to EDA was determined. The accuracy of the prognostic model and score were tested in a separate UK MS cohort. Results: After 12 months, 61.54% of patients experienced relapses and/or new MRI lesions. Younger age (OR 0.96, CI 0.93–0.99; p = 0.005), MRI infratentorial lesion(s) at baseline (OR 2.21, CI 1.27–3.87; p = 0.005), positive oligoclonal bands (OR 2.89, CI 1.47–5.69; p = 0.002), and abnormal lower limb somatosensory-evoked potentials (OR 2.77, CI 1.41–5.42; p = 0.003) were significantly associated with increased risk of EDA. The EUMUS score demonstrated good specificity (72%) and correctly classified 80% of patients with EDA in the independent UK cohort. Conclusions: The EUMUS score is a simple and useful tool for predicting MS evolution within 12 months of the first clinical episode. It has the potential to guide personalized therapeutic approaches and aid in clinical decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]