Public order offences: resisting, insulting, refusing to identify
Resisting a public official carries six months to five years, and since 2025 the penalty is increased by up to a half where the resistance is directed at a police officer. Insulting one is a separate offence, six months to three years, but only where three conditions are all met. Passive resistance is not an offence at all.
What counts as resistance
The offence requires an active use of violence or threat directed at the officer. Struggling forcefully while being restrained, pushing, grabbing an officer and dragging them, physically resisting being placed in a vehicle: all of these have been treated as violence.
What is not covered is passive resistance — going limp, refusing to walk, holding on to a post without striking anyone, failing to open a door. There is no energy directed at the officer. The line between the two is thin and it is where nearly every one of these cases is decided, because it depends entirely on the words used in the officer's report.
| Element | Rule | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Basic offence | Six months to five years | Art. 337 Criminal Code |
| Against a police officer | Penalty increased by up to a half | Added in 2025 |
| Weapons, disguise, several people acting together | Further increase | Art. 339 |
| Insulting a public official | Six months to three years | Art. 341-bis |
| Refusing to give your identity | Up to one month or a fine up to 206 euro | Art. 651 |
| Reaction to an arbitrary act | No punishment | Art. 393-bis |
Insulting an officer: three conditions, all required
It is not simply swearing at someone in uniform. Article 341-bis requires that the offence be committed in a public place or a place open to the public, in the presence of several people, and while the official is performing a duty.
The second condition is the one that fails most often. At least two people other than the officer and their colleagues must have been physically present. The abstract possibility that someone might have heard is not enough, and that single check closes a great many of these cases.
There is also a way out written into the provision: if the harm is fully repaired before the trial opens — compensating both the officer and their administration — the offence is extinguished. It has to reach both, and it has to be before the trial.
When the officer was in the wrong
This is the strongest defence available and it is regularly overlooked. Article 393-bis excludes punishment for resisting, insulting and related offences where the official caused the situation by exceeding the limits of their powers with arbitrary acts.
Complaining that officers were rude does not meet it. It requires an act outside their powers — a personal search conducted where the law did not allow it, force plainly disproportionate to the situation. Where it applies, the entire group of charges arising from that encounter falls, including the insult.
The evidence disappears fast: CCTV, recordings made by bystanders, hospital records for injuries you sustained, the identification record. All of it has to be secured in the first days.
The 2025 constitutional ruling
The 2022 reform had excluded the defence of particular tenuity for resisting and related offences committed against police officers. In 2025 the Constitutional Court struck that exclusion down as it applied to resisting a public official, so the defence is available again for that offence.
It was not struck down for the offence of insulting an officer, which remains excluded. The distinction is technical and it matters: two charges arising from the same incident are now treated differently.
Why these charges arrive in groups
Resisting, insulting and refusing to identify frequently appear together in a single set of proceedings, sometimes with an offence of assault as well. They do not absorb one another: insulting is not an element of resisting, so both stand.
The practical consequence is that a defence cannot concentrate on the most serious charge alone. Removing the minor ones affects the overall sentence more than the brackets suggest, and it is often easier.
Frequently asked questions
Is running away from the police an offence in Italy?
Flight alone is not resistance: there is no violence or threat directed at the officer. It becomes resistance if pushing, blows or dangerous manoeuvres against those pursuing are added.
What if the police acted improperly?
Article 393-bis excludes punishment where the official exceeded the limits of their powers with arbitrary acts. It requires an act outside their powers, not merely an unpleasant manner.
Can I be charged for insulting an officer?
Only if it happened in a public place, in the presence of at least two other people, and while the official was performing a duty. All three conditions are required.
Do resisting and insulting charges merge?
No. They are separate offences and both stand, because the insult is not an element of the offence of resisting.
If you were arrested after a police encounter
If there was an arrest, the validation hearing comes within hours and the account of the incident is fixed there. First contact is free and covered by professional privilege, at any hour.