Institutional Violence and Quality of Democracies

Thursday, 10 July 2025: 11:00-12:45
Location: FSE025 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC26 Sociotechnics, Sociological Practice (host committee)

Language: English

Institutional violence is committed by public institutions that exercise their power to damage individuals and social groups, or to maintain structural oppression (i.e. discriminations, prejudices, rights restrictions).
It can be acted by state actors, not only through actions or omissions of public officials and judicial actors that do not fulfil their duty in good faith, but also by implementing norms or specific institutional practices that do not reflect the public interest.
Furthermore, the rise of illiberal democracies led to a condition of uncertainty over rights that should have been taken for granted, with a direct impact on the full and equal enjoyment of such rights by minorities, people with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA+ people.
This panel will focus on the pervasive impact of institutional violence on ethnic minorities, women and girls, LGBTQIA+ people and other oppressed social categories, to the different ways in which it manifests, and on the ways to denounce and counter it. Also, great attention will be dedicated to the link between institutional violence, state accountability and quality of democracies.
In this session, we welcome paper addressing in particular:
- Institutional violence against women and/or girls;
- Institutional violence against LGBTQIA+ people;
- Institutional violence against immigrants and ethnic minorities.
Session Organizers:
Rosalba BELMONTE, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Italy and Luca MASSIDDA, University of Tuscia, Italy
Chairs:
Rosalba BELMONTE, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Italy and Luca MASSIDDA, University of Tuscia, Italy
Oral Presentations
Institutional Violence in Italy: Blaming Women in the Courts and the Press
Flaminia SACCA, Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy
Gender Based Violence and Institutional Violence Against Women
Valentina RAFFA, University of Messina, Italy; Sabrina GAROFALO, University of Calabria, Italy
Confronting Men's Discomfort: The Affective Dimensions of Masculinity in the Manosphere
Manolo FARCI, Italy; Elena CECCARELLI, Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy