Special Orphans in Italy: Law No. 4/2018, Subsequent Reforms, and Institutional Coherence

Children orphaned by domestic homicide occupy a legally distinctive position at the intersection of gender violence, child protection, family law, and victims’ rights. In Italian scholarly and institutional discourse, these children are commonly described as “special orphans” (Italian: orfani speciali), although the expression is not a formal statutory category. This article examines Law 11 January 2018 No. 4, its implementing framework, and subsequent reforms, including Law 2 December 2025 No. 181, as a multi-field system of protection. It asks whether the breadth of the available safeguards is matched by sufficient legal–institutional coherence, understood here as identifiable access routes, coordination among responsible authorities, and continuity in the activation of related measures. Adopting a primarily doctrinal method, complemented by purposively selected institutional and interdisciplinary materials, the article reconstructs criminal–procedural, succession-related, patrimonial, welfare, and identity-related protections. It argues that Italian law has assembled a broad set of safeguards and contains sector-specific coordination duties and national care guidance, while activation remains distributed across measure-specific judicial, administrative, and territorial channels. The unresolved question is therefore not whether coordination mechanisms exist, but whether the existing links collectively provide an identifiable cross-sector pathway across the different entitlements and beneficiary groups. Brief references to Spain and Argentina are used only to illustrate different legal techniques of protection. The article concludes that cross-sector integration, accessible activation, and continuity of protection remain central legal–institutional challenges.