According to Italian government data, the number of sexual assaults actually fell last year, but three rapes some ten days ago in Rome, Milan and Bologna triggered a media frenzy that prompted calls for tougher measures.
The law approved by Italy's cabinet on Friday (20 February) sets a mandatory life sentence for deaths resulting from rape, fast-tracks trials for suspected sex offenders caught in the act, removes the option of house arrest and gives free legal assistance to victims.
It also introduces mandatory life sentences for rape of minors. It comes into effect immediately, but must be approved by both houses of parliament within 60 days.
One of the most controversial measures in the decree is to allow citizen street patrols by unarmed and unpaid volunteers.
"This is what was needed. I have to wake up at five in the morning to accompany my daughter to the train station because the streets are not safe," a resident of Guidonia, a town east of Rome with a large immigrant population, told Italian television.
Mayors will be able to approve citizen patrols, with priority given to membership or leadership roles by retired police and military on leave.
The move came after groups of self-styled and unregulated vigilantes began patrolling some towns, alarming law enforcement officials.
Berlusconi under fire by the Vatican
The centre-left opposition criticised the decree as propaganda, while the Vatican, whose views on moral issues carry significant weight in Italy, said the government was "abdicating the rule of law" by introducing the citizen patrols.
"This is not the path to follow," said Monsignor Agostino Marchetto, head of the Vatican department for immigration issues.
The decree also allows authorities to detain immigrants for six months - up from two months - while they work to identify them, process asylum requests and expel those who are not entitled to stay.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi earlier said the number of sexual assaults fell 10 percent last year compared to 2006 and 2007, which he said showed the government's efforts to improve security were working.
But many Italians are unconvinced, with recent rapes grabbing headlines in newspapers and television. The media often play up the role of foreigners as perpetrators.
Some lawmakers have also reopened the debate over whether sex offenders should be chemically castrated.
"There's a rape every 12 hours, every 24 hours, and it's time to end this," another resident of Guidonia - where a group of Romanians last month raped a woman and beat her boyfriend - told Italian television.
Romanian minister goes to Rome
Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Cristian Diaconescu yesterday (23 February) visted Italy at the invitation of his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini, the Romanian press reported. Diaconescu declared that he planned to support Italian authorities in countering felonies and in the same time to protect the rights and dignity of all Romanians living in Italy.
The Romanian minister stressed that the recent incidents involving Romanians in Italy were isolated events. He declared that they should be punished by the law, but that other Romanians in Italy should not be victimised.
(EurActiv with Reuters)
