School violence in two Mediterranean countries: Italy and Albania

School victimization includes every form of violent offense, including physical or psychological brutality, abandonment or exploitation, and sexual abuse experienced by students. Being tied to a specific cultural context, school victimization can present differences in terms of frequency and risk factors in various countries. The aim of this study is to describe this phenomenon, its incidence and prevalence, and the risk factors associated with it (i.e., gender and age) in Italy and Albania; two European nations geographically close but with significant differences in historical, cultural, and legislative traditions. A total of 596 participants - schoolchildren from grades 6–13, of whom 261 were Italian and 335 were Albanian – anonymously filled out the ICAST-CI questionnaire. The results show that school victimization affects both countries. Both in Italy and Albania, physical, and psychological abuse are the most common forms of victimization, while sexual abuse is the least frequent. Furthermore, in terms of demographics, the victims’ peers are the most-frequent perpetrators in every category of victimization. However, Albania presents significantly higher levels of physical victimization than Italy and a higher percentage of adult offenders. Gender and age are significant risk factors of school victimization, albeit with some differences concerning the types of abuse in both nations.