Can 10 Seconds Define Violence? Why Italy is in Uproar over a Judge’s 10 Second Groping Rule

Marta Finazzi | 27 August | WYWW Articles

Rome, April 2022.

A 17-year-old student makes her way to class with her fellow classmates.

Like any ordinary day, she and her friends take the stairs that lead up to their classroom.

However, as she climbs the stairs , she realizes that her trousers have fallen down.

Before she even has time to grab them, she feels a foreign hand grab her underwear and then proceed to grope her.

Terrified and humiliated, she turns around to confront the person who has assaulted her.

Standing on the lower step, she finds the school janitor. A wry grin wrinkles his face.

“Love, you know I was joking” He declares with a smile [1].  

In July of this year, a question was put before an Italian judge as to whether the school janitor,  sixty-six-year-old Antonia Avola, had sexually assaulted the teenager.

Despite the facts suggesting otherwise, the judge, in a now infamous decision, ruled in the janitor’s favour [2].

His reasoning, based on as assumption that the janitor’s touching could not constitute sexual assault as it lasted for a period of under 10 seconds [3].

Naturally, after the ruling was made, there was widespread uproar across social and political spheres not just within Italy but the world.

A multitude of petitions  begin to appear across the EU, beginning first in Germany and then in Italy asking for a review of the sentence against the 66-year-old Roman janitor [4].

Online, the hashtag #10secondi began spreading on social media platforms.

 In particular, it gained massive traction on TikTok [5].

The hashtag encouraged influencers to depict harassment within a 10 second period to show how damaging it can be.

The posts highlighted the judges lack of awareness over the significant damaging effects sexual assault and unsolicited touching can have on victims no matter how long it last [6].

As stated by one supporter of the online petition, “10 seconds is an eternity; even 1 second should be a crime” [7].

The aspect that further aggravates the picture, already tragicomic in some respects, is that the janitor himself confirmed what he did, but that he felt justified in doing so because he had a friendly relationship with the girl in question [8].

The judge and his team, did not raise any objection to the janitors submissions, but rather supported his point of view and invalidated that of the girl [9].

This case highlights the problems that still exist silently in Italy today: often the victims, in the moment in which they decide to file a complaint, are not believed or are not considered credible enough if they decide to speak out a certain time and not immediately after the fact.

As a result of this, victims who do not have their dignity and personal choice respected and who do not see support from institutions feel less encouraged to speak out about sexual violence [10].

This in turn generates a vicious circle, where victims are considered to be exaggerating their victimisation and their perpetrators are considered to be nothing more than "clumsy" [11].

Thus, leading to a decrease in the social prevention of violence and a progressive increase in cases.

In Italy, according to the National Institute of Statistics (Istat), in 2014 31.5% of adult women (about 6 million and 800 thousand) suffered some form of physical or sexual violence at least once in their lives [12].

Of these, most do not consider violence a crime and consequently decide not to report it [13].

However, the situation is gradually changing, and Istat data confirm this trend.

In the period between 2006 and 2014, it has been observed that in recent years both sexual violence and domestic violence complaints  have increased (11.8% against 6.7%) and the tendency to talk about them with one's support network or in specific structures has also increased (from 2.4% to 4.9%) [14]

We can therefore guess that one of the most effective interventions in reducing the phenomenon of violence in the broadest sense is to talk about the issue openly and collaboratively.

Especially in environments such as schools as children are often subjected to numerous gender stereotypes which reinforce inequality and facilitate violent manifestations, both physical and psychological, in the future [15].

Exposing children to equality gradually, for example by adopting textbooks in which the mother does not always play the role of the housewife and the father of the breadwinner, hiring a permanently trained school psychologist (In Italy this figure is not fully recognized by the law) and strengthening interventions to face cyberbullying (especially against revenge porn, sextortion and online harassment), is a simple but fundamental action to protect their future and that of all members of the community [16].

Thus, we can all strive to not allow situations in which teenagers are sexually assaulted by seniors within their own highs school.

We can strive to prevent judges from acquitting perpetrators who were just “joking”.

And, we can strive to not question anymore if 10 seconds constitutes violence.

Sources

[1] For an overview of the facts of this case, please see the following article by Angela Giuffrida, ‘Italian man cleared of assault because grope only lasted ‘between five and 10 seconds’, The Guardian, (online at 13 July 2023) < https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/13/fury-italy-school-caretaker-cleared-groping-assault-lasted-seconds>

[2] Sofia Bettiza, ‘Italian uproar over judge’s 10-second groping rule’, BBC News, (online at 12 July 2023) <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66174352>

[3] See ibid.

[4] David Mouriquand, ‘Why is this shocking ’10 second groping rule going viral on Italian social media?’, euronews.culture (online at 13 July 2023) < https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/07/13/why-is-the-shocking-10-second-grope-rule-going-viral-on-italian-social-media>

[5] See ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Hannah Shewan Stevens, ‘The “10 second grope” ruling is ridiculous. Sexual assault has no time limit’, the independent (online at 13 July 2023) https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/10-second-grope-italy-caretaker-judge-b2374814.html

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10]  D Bagattini, S Calzone, S., & V Pedani, ‘Il ruolo della scuola nel contrasto alla

violenza di genere e le opportunità offerte dal programma operativo nazionale. Italian’ (2019) (22)  Journal of Educational Research, (22), 11-30..

[11] Ibid.

[12] Istatem ‘Il numeor delle vittime e le forme della violenza’ Istat (online 2014) <https://www.istat.it/it/violenza-sulle-donne/il-fenomeno/violenza-dentro-e-fuori-la-famiglia/numero-delle-vittime-e-forme-di-violenza>

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Natassia Chryanthos, ‘Schools could soon hold the key to shaping attitudes towards gender’, The Sydney Morning Herald (online 6 May 2021) < https://www.smh.com.au/education/just-for-girls-students-views-of-gender-stereotypes-change-after-schools-examine-own-policies-20210504-p57otp.html>

[16] Ibid.