Young foreigners commit nearly half of the serious crimes in Italy in the 14-24 age group, according to data from the Italian government’s National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT).
The numbers are truly shocking since for this age group, foreigners make up 9.6 percent of the population. Nevertheless, young immigrants commit 50.2 percent of thefts, 48.1 percent of robberies, 47.7 percent of sexual violence, and 40.4 percent of assaults.
In the 18-24 age group, foreigners make up 11.2 percent of the country’s population, yet commit a whopping 89.7 percent of crimes involving exploitation of prostitution, 55.8 percent of cases involving sexual violence, 52.8 percent of robberies, 52.4 percent of thefts, and 43.6 percent of malicious injury cases.
ISTAT also shows that the share of crime committed by foreigners has steadily increased in the last few decades. In 1990, foreigners represented 2.5 percent of those accused of crimes while in 2009, foreigners represented 24 percent of those accused of a crime.
The data does not include crimes committed by second-generation Italians. In other words, Italians born to immigrant parents are not listed as “foreigners” and are instead seen as Italian citizens.