Is Palermo safe?

I've googled the topic and can't come up with one news article regarding violence against tourists in Siciliy.

Me neither. Please identify where you are reading such news.

My guess is TripAdvisor.

It was a topic on the TripAdvisor Sicily forum.

Yes, CJean, there is a thread right now on the tripadvisor Sicily forum. It was started by Vagabonda and I was surprised to read it. She is a frequent poster and was very helpful when I was planning my trip last year.
I haven't read all the posts so can't comment on the question. I can say that while we felt safe in Palermo last year, it has a grittier feeling than most of the rest of Italy ( or even Sicily). However it is a beautiful city with an amazing history, and well worth seeing.

We were last in Palermo in 2017. People drive like nuts and it's a busy city but we felt safe. Sorry to hear that it is now having problems. Enjoy Sicily, it is one of my favorite islands.

I've lived in five cities: Washington DC, London, Chicago, Minneapolis, and now St. Paul. All of these cities have places that are better to avoid, especially at night or alone. And bad things like robberies and attacks happen even in places that "feel safe" and are not at all "gritty." I don't have any factual information about Palermo, but I spent 5 nights there in March this year and felt safer than I have felt in cities in the US, including where I live now. Why? I guess because I don't think guns are as common in Italy as they are here.

I was there on my own for two nights at the beginning of and two nights at the end of my Sicily trip in April 2023, and with a friend in between.
Both us us female and young at heart if not in years.
I never felt unsafe at all, in fact I felt quite safe and took the public buses, walked all over and everyone I interacted with was friendly, including drivers who stopped and waved me across streets when I wanted to cross.
There are worse places to be!
I saw that thread on the TA forum….it had no facts to back it up.

Compare with San Salvador, El Salvador.
Much safer.

The data on criminality in Italy by province is below.
https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/indice-della-criminalita/classifica/tabelle/?refresh_ce=1

Overall Palermo ranks 21st out of 106 as general all inclusive crime index. The “unsafest” cities in Italy are respectively Milan, Rome, and Florence.
If you are more interested in violent crime, like homicide, the 3 most dangerous places, with the highest homicide rate, are Nuoro (in Sardinia), Enna (in Sicily), Brindisi (in Puglia). Palermo is only 79th out of 106 in homicide rate. Not only, the homicide rate in Palermo is shamefully low compared to both Vancouver BC and Victoria BC, Palermo (1.2 million people in the province and over 700k in the city limits) has a bigger population than Vancouver BC. In Vancouver there are approximately 40-45 homicides annually. In Palermo? FOUR (4), for the entire year (where are all those good old mafiosi fellas gone?).
So don’t follow crazy posts on websites where people post baseless garbage based on zero factual data. Enjoy Palermo, one of the safest cities in Italy and indeed the world. But for God sakes stay out of Vancouver. Actually, Canada, with 40 million people vs. 60 million in Italy, has more than twice the homicides of the whole of Italy (ca. 800 per year vs. 300 in Italy). You should move out of Canada. Way too unsafe.