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Date: April 18, 2024 Thu
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italy
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412 total results foundAuthor: Daniele, Vittorio Title: Organized Crime and Foreign Direct Investment: the Italian Case Summary: The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of crime on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 103 Italian provinces. The incidence of criminality is measured through the number of complaints for different kinds of crime. The analysis has been conducted using different estimation methods for panel data. The results show how the correlation between organized crime is both negative and significant. This relationship appears strong even when, in specifications, it is considered as an indicator of financial incentives for investment. Furthermore, such a correlation between crime and FDI seems to be valid only for certain crimes, traditionally related to presence of organized crime of the mafia type. Even if these results suggest that crime is, in itself, a deterrent for foreign investors, this does not exclude the possibility that a high incidence of (certain) crimes may be perceived as a signal of a socio-institutional environment unfavorable for FDI. Details: Munich, Germany: CESifo GmbH (Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research), 2008 Source: CESifo Working Paper No. 2416 Year: 2008 Country: Italy Keywords: Organized Crime Shelf Number: 113391 |
Author: Savona, Ernesto U. Title: A Study of Crime Proofing: Evaluation of Crime Risk Implications of the European Commission's Proposals Covering a Range of Policy Areas Summary: This overall aim of the project is to promote crime proofing, in order to develop a practical instrument to be used by policymakers for detecting and reducing possible crime risks inadvertently caused by legislation. Details: Milan: Transcrime, 2006 Source: Year: 2006 Country: Italy Keywords: Law and Legislation Shelf Number: 114309 |
Author: Feinstein, Clare Title: Children's and Adolescents' Participation and Protection from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Summary: This paper presents an overview of government commitments concerning children's and adolescents' participation in the fight against sexual abuse and exploitation; children's and adolescents' own recommendations to end sexual abuse and exploitation of children; and inspiring case studies that provide concrete recommendations for strengthening children's and adolescents' involvement in child protection. Details: Florence, Italy: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2009 Source: Innocenti Working Paper; 2009-09 Year: 2009 Country: Italy Keywords: Adolescents Shelf Number: 114869 |
Author: Carchedi, R. Title: Trafficking of Nigerian Girls in Italy: The Data, The Stories, The Social Services Summary: This publication examines the services and social protection interventions in favor of minor Nigerian girls who are victims of trafficking in Italy. The study highlights the particular aspects of trafficking from Nigeria, especially those related to minors, while examining the specific needs and characteristics of these services through a qualitative research approach. Using official data from the Department for Equal Opportunities on victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, this study also provides an estimate of the phenomenon on the Nigerian target population. Details: Rome: UNICRI, 2010. 109p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: Italy Keywords: Child Prostitution Shelf Number: 118696 |
Author: Detotto, Claudio Title: Assessing Substitution and Complementary Effects Amongst Crime Typologies Summary: This paper aims at assessing how offenders allocate their effort amongst several crime typologies. Specifically, complementary and substitution effects are tested amongst number of recorded crimes. Furthermore, the extent to which crime is detrimental for economic growth is also tested. The case study is Italy and the time span under analysis is from 1981:1 up to 2004:4. A Vector Autoregressive Correction Mechanism (VECM) is employed after having assessed the integration and cointegration status of the variables under investigation. The main findings are that a bi-directional complementary effect exists between drug related crimes and receiving, whereas a bi-directional substitution effect is detected between robberies, extortions and kidnapping and homicides and falsity, respectively. Furthermore, economic growth produces a positive effect on the growth of homicides, receiving and drug related crimes; while, the growth in robberies, extortion and kidnapping and falsity have a crowding-out effect on economic growth. Details: Munich: University Library of Munich, 2010. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 20046; Accessed October 21, 2010 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20046/1/MPRA_paper_20046.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Italy Keywords: Drug Abuse and Crime Shelf Number: 120036 |
Author: Drago, Francesco Title: Indirect Effects of a Policy Altering Criminal Behaviour: Evidence from the Italian Prison Experiment Summary: We exploit the Collective Clemency Bill passed by the Italian Parliament in July 2006 to evaluate the indirect effects of a policy that randomly commutes actual sentences to expected sentences for 40 percent of the Italian prison population. We estimate the direct and indirect impact of the residual sentence – corresponding to a month less time served in prison associated with a month of expected sentence – at the date of release on individual recidivism. Using prison, nationality and region of residence to construct reference groups of former inmates, we find large indirect effects of this policy. In particular, we find that the reduction in the individuals’ recidivism due to an increase in their peers’ residual sentence is at least as large as their response to an increase in their own residual sentence. From this result we estimate a social multiplier in crime of 2. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor, 2010. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 5414: Accessed February 1, 2011 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp5414.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Italy Keywords: Criminal Justice Policy Shelf Number: 120649 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Optimal Criminal Behavior and the Disutility of Jail: Theory and Evidence On Bank Robberies Summary: This paper uses unique data on the benefits of individual crimes, in particular, 5,000 Italian bank robberies – representing 57 percent of all European bank robberies – to identify the distribution of criminals’ perceived disutility of jail or value of freedom. Bank robbers behave according to an instantaneous version of Becker’s model of crime: during bank robberies both the probability of apprehension and the average haul increase over time. At the margin this trade-off depends on: i) the criminal’s expected haul at time t, ii) its expected increase between t and t+1, iii) the hazard rate of arrest, and iv) the criminals’ disutility of ending up in jail. The optimal duration t in successful robberies allows me to identify the individual disutility of ending up in jail or value of freedom. The distribution of the disutility of jail is positively skewed and resembles a typical earnings distribution. Ability among criminals appears to be distributed like ability among workers since both earnings and the disutility of jail – an opportunity cost that is larger for more able criminals – arise from an underlying distribution of ability. Moreover, the relationship between the modus operandi of bank robberies and the derived disutility of jail time is consistent with the existence of general deterrence. Sentence enhancements appear to be correctly targeting the most able bank robbers. Finally, more able bank robbers are considerably more responsive to deterrence than less able ones. Details: Unpublished Paper, 2011. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed May 4, 2011 at: http://www.carloalberto.org/people/mastrobuoni/doc/ValueFreedom4.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Italy Keywords: Bank Robberies (Italy) Shelf Number: 121618 |
Author: Barbarino, Alessandro Title: The Incapacitation Effect of Incarceration: Evidence From Several Italian Collective Pardons Summary: We estimate the “incapacitation effect” on crime using variation in Italian prison population driven by eight collective pardons passed between 1962 and 1995. The prison releases are sudden — within one day —, very large — up to 35 percent of the entire prison population — and happen nationwide. Exploiting this quasi-natural experiment we break the simultaneity of crime and prisoners as in Levitt (1996) and, in addition, use the national character of the pardons to separately identify incapacitation from changes in deterrence. The elasticity of total crime with respect to incapacitation is -15 percent. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that Italy’s prison population is below its optimal level: the estimated marginal social cost of crime is more than two times the cost of incarceration. Details: Unpublished Paper, 2011. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 5, 2011 at: http://www.carloalberto.org/people/mastrobuoni/doc/ReducedPardonJan2011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Italy Keywords: Amnesty Shelf Number: 121647 |
Author: Zuffa, Grazia Title: How to Determine Personal Use in Drug Legislation. The “Threshold Controversy” in the Light of the Italian Experience Summary: Distinguishing between drug possession for personal use and supply and trafficking is widely acknowledged as one of the most difficult and controversial issues facing drug legislators and policy makers. To address the problem, two solutions are typically enacted: the threshold scheme and the “flexible” model. According to the former, pre-defined quantities of the substances are presumed for personal use, while in the flexible model (or “discretionary system”) the court rules whether possession of drugs is intended for personal use or for supply, taking into account all the available circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to examine the advantages and the shortcomings of the different options, based on the Italian experience, as well as their real effectiveness in dealing with the problem. As the threshold controversy in the Italian context is closely intertwined with the debate over “criminalisation versus decriminalisation”, it will be necessary to examine changes in drug legislation, in particular evaluating the current 2006 drug law. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2011. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Series on Legislative Reform of Drug Policies Nr. 15: Accessed September 2, 2011 at: http://www.idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/The-threshold-controversy-in-the-light-of-the-italian-experience.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Italy Keywords: Drug Control (Italy) Shelf Number: 122620 |
Author: Mennella, Antonella Title: Informal Social Networks, Organised Crime and Local Labour Market Summary: This paper’s purpose is to show a new informal social networks interpretation, according to which social networks change their nature if they are located in social contexts where organised crime is relevant. Here the perusal of a social network is just a necessary condition to enter the labour market rather than a deliberate choice. Moreover this labour market is the ground where favouritisms and social and electoral consensus policies take place. The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents a short review of the literature on informal social networks in labour market, Section 3 focuses on Italian economic literature on organised crime. The subsequent section highlights the new concept of informal social networks and explains the introduction of organised crime in the relationship between informal channels and labour market. The theoretical model, with the new three hypothesis, is developed in Section 5. Section 6 presents the econometric estimates and Section 7 closes the paper. Details: Rome: Dipartimento di Economia Università degli Studi Roma Tre Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 126: Accessed January 10, 2012 at: http://dipeco.uniroma3.it/public/WP%20126%20Mennella%202011.pdf Year: 0 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 123551 |
Author: Monzini, Paola Title: Human Smuggling To/Through Italy Summary: This report contains the following two papers: The Irregular Immigration Industry on the North-East Border, by Giuseppe Sciortino and Migrant Smuggling via Maritime Routes, by Paola Monzini. Details: Rome (?):Centre Studi di Politica Internazionale, 2004. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: http://www.cespi.it/cnr/Monzini-Sciortino-ing_rev_.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Italy Keywords: Human Smuggling Shelf Number: 123737 |
Author: Drago, Francesco Title: The Deterrent Effects of Prison: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Summary: In this paper we test for the theory of deterrence. We exploit the natural experiment provided by the Collective Clemency Bill passed by the Italian Parliament in July 2006. As a consequence of the provisions of the bill, expected punishment to former inmates recommitting a crime can be considered as good as randomly assigned. Based on a unique data set on post-release behaviour of former inmates, we find that an additional month in expected sentence reduces the propensity to recommit a crime by 1.24 percent: this corroborates the general deterrence hypothesis. However, this effect depends on the time previously served in prison: the behavioural response to an additional month of expected sentence decreases with the length of the prison spell. This second result can be hardly reconciled with the specific deterrence hypothesis according to which a stronger past experience of punishment should increase the sensitivity to future expected sanctions. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2007. 31p. Source: Discussion Paper Series, IZA DP No. 2912: Internet Resource: Accessed February 21, 2012 at http://ftp.iza.org/dp2912.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Italy Keywords: Deterrence (Italy) Shelf Number: 124214 |
Author: Biagi, Bianca Title: The effect of tourism on crime in Italy: A dynamic panel approach Summary: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, all else being equal, for the case of Italy, tourist areas tend to have a greater amount of crime than non-tourist areas in the long run. Following the literature of the economics of crime à la Becker (1968) and Ehrlich (1973) and using a system GMM approach for the time span 1985-2003, the authors empirically test whether total crime in Italy is affected by tourist arrivals. Findings confirm the initial intuition of a positive relationship between tourism and crime in destinations. When controlling for the difference between tourists and residents in the propensity to be victimized, no relevant differences are found: the likelihood to be victimized is quite similar for the two groups. As a consequence, agglomeration and urbanisation effects seem to be the main explanation for the impact of tourism on crime. One can image that overcrowded cities provide more opportunities to criminals to commit illegal activities regardless of the number of visitors and residents in destinations. Details: Germany: Econstor, German National Library of Economics, 2012. 28p. Source: Economics Discussion Papers, No. 2012-4: Internet Resource: Accessed March 14, 2012 at http://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/54945 Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Tourism and Crime (Italy) Shelf Number: 124548 |
Author: Balloni, Augusto Title: Gender-based Violence, Stalking and Fear of Crime: Country Report Italy Summary: The results of this research, and especially the interviews with stakeholders within and outwith the universities, clearly reveal the difficulty of defining the nature and the extent of the phenomenon. The parties involved cannot say how often the University of Bologna’s female students may have encountered problems with stalking, harassment or sexual violence, due to a lack of incontrovertible data on the phenomenon. There is no formal documentation regarding episodes or elements connected with the cases that have occurred within the university or requests for assistance on the part of students in difficulty. Indeed, many interviewees believe that the target, the reference sample, is too specific, in that it covers a sector of the population - female university students – that is not easy to identify, because even when a victim formally reports the crime to the police, detailed information on the victim is often not available. If the offence is not reported, and the victim decides instead to confide in family or friends, this information will be even more difficult to find; and even if the student turns to a specialised centre against gender violence, the fact she is a university student has little bearing on the collection of statistical data. Details: Bochum, Germany: Ruhr-University Bochum, 2012. 32p. Source: EU-Project 2009-2011: Internet Resource: Accessed March 18, 2012 at http://vmrz0183.vm.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gendercrime/pdf/gendercrime_country_report_italy_english.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Colleges and Universities Shelf Number: 124574 |
Author: Pinotti, Paolo Title: The Economic Costs of Organized Crime: Evidence from Southern Italy Summary: I examine the post-war economic development of two regions in southern Italy exposed to mafia activity after the 1970s and apply synthetic control methods to estimate their counterfactual economic performance in the absence of organized crime. The synthetic control is a weighted average of other regions less affected by mafia activity that mimics the economic structure and outcomes of the regions of interest several years before the advent of organized crime. The comparison of actual and counterfactual development shows that the presence of mafia lowers GDP per capita by 16%, at the same time as murders increase sharply relative to the synthetic control. Evidence from electricity consumption and growth accounting suggest that lower GDP reflects a net loss of economic activity, due to the substitution of private capital with less productive public investment, rather than a mere reallocation from the official to the unofficial sector. Details: Milan, Italy: Universita Bocconi, 2012. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2012 at: https://irvapp.fbk.eu/sites/irvapp.fbk.eu/files/irvapp_seminar_2013_01_pinotti_paper.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 124623 |
Author: Buonanno, Paolo Title: Police and Crime: Evidence from Dictated Delays in Centralized Police Hiring Summary: This paper exploits dictated delays in local police hiring by a centralized national authority to break the simultaneity between police and crime. In Italy police officers can only be hired through lengthy national public contests which the Parliament, the President, and the Court of Auditors need to approve. Typically it takes three years before the requested police officers are recruited and become operational. We show that this endogeneity vanishes once, controlling for countrywide year effects, we use positive changes in the number of police officers. The availability of data on two police forces, specialized in fighting different crimes, provides convincing counterfactual evidence on the robustness of our results. Despite the inefficient hiring system, regular Italian police forces seem to be as efficient in fighting crimes as the US ones, with two notable exceptions: auto thefts and burglaries. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2012. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 6477: Accessed April 29, 2012 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6477.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Police Recruitment and Selection Shelf Number: 125028 |
Author: Buonanno, Paolo Title: On the Historical and Geographic Origins of the Sicilian Mafia Summary: This research attempts to explain the large differences in the early diffusion of the mafia across different areas of Sicily. We advance the hypothesis that, after the demise of Sicilian feudalism, the lack of publicly provided property-right protection from widespread banditry favored the development of a florid market for private protection and the emergence of a cartel of protection providers: the mafia. This would especially be the case in those areas (prevalently concentrated in the Western part of the island) characterized by the production and commercialization of sulphur and citrus fruits, Sicily's most valuable export goods whose international demand was soaring at the time. We test this hypothesis combining data on the early incidence of mafia across Sicilian municipalities and on the distribution of sulphur reserves, land suitability for the cultivation of citrus fruits, distance from the main commercial ports, and a variety of other geographical controls. Our empirical findings provide support for the proposed hypothesis documenting, in particular, a significant impact of sulphur extraction, terrain ruggedness, and distance from Palermo's port on mafia's early diffusion. Details: Unpublished Paper 2011. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 37009: Accessed July 24, 2012 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37009/1/MPRA_paper_37009.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Italy Keywords: Mafia (Sicily) Shelf Number: 125761 |
Author: Capuano, Carlo Title: The Macroeconomic Impact of Organized Crime: A Neo-Kaleckian Perspective Summary: The paper analyzes how organized crime affects the economy through its impact on the effective demand, following the Neo-Kaleckian approach. From this perspective, the presence of organized crime, on the one hand, tends to reduce the effective demand draining resources through extortion, bribery of public officials and encouraging consumption of criminal goods (illegal goods and goods produced in the underground economy), on the other hand, tends to increase the effective demand using the proceeds of criminal activity in the purchase of legal consumption and investment goods. The model highlights the opposing action of these two forces and identifies the conditions for a negative impact on the degree of capacity utilization and the growth rate. For the latter, these conditions tend to be more stringent, due to the direct impact of organized crime on investment decisions. Overall, the operation of organized crime tends to negatively influence the economic activity to the extent that the income drained from the legal sector is not reused into the same sector. Details: Naples: Department of Economics, University of Naples, 2012. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 40077: Accessed July 265, 2012 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/40077/1/MPRA_paper_40077.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Markets Shelf Number: 125766 |
Author: Korsby, Trine Mygind Title: Maneuvering Towards Subjectivity: An Anthropological Analysis of Young Victims of Human Trafficking in Italy Summary: This thesis investigates how Ramona and other young women who are victims of human trafficking in Italy experience their lives and personal histories after having fled from their traffickers. Human trafficking is a growing international concern, both within an international forum and in Denmark. A number of governments, NGOs and international organizations create policy plans, information campaigns and make law suggestions, which should contribute to combating human trafficking. Politicians make statements about how human traffickers should be prosecuted and how to best help the victims. Human trafficking has been given a central position on national and global agendas; however, we only rarely hear the victims’ voices or get an insight into their lives – and this is why I have chosen to do fieldwork among young victims of human trafficking and to write this thesis. I hope to offer an ethnographic view into the world and conditions of young trafficking victims; a world that is in the eye of the storm within the debate on human trafficking, but into which outsiders are only very rarely granted an in-depth insight. This thesis is an ethnographic account of the actions, social relations, perceptions and histories of sixteen young victims of human trafficking. At the same time, the thesis is also a testimony of trust, freedom and hope. Details: Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, Institute of Anthropology, 2010. 122p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Thesis: Accessed August 17, 2012 at: http://www.centermodmenneskehandel.dk/publikationer/ovrige-publikationer/maneuvering-towards-subjectivity-an-anthropological-analysis-of-young-victims-of-human-trafficking-in-italy-1 Year: 2010 Country: Italy Keywords: Child Trafficking Shelf Number: 126064 |
Author: Oliva, Nicola S. Title: Meeting "Jeweller's Block" for the Italian Market: Statistic trend of robberies and consequent risks' improvement Summary: The year end reports of the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Offices, based also on the reports issued by police forces, once again draw a general criminal overview that does not practically differ from the trend of previous years, as it is confirmed by the statistics described ahead. The statistics provided by ISTAT (National Institute of Statistics) show that the crimes registered by the Public Prosecutor’s Offices (including those committed by unknown) have decreased from last year even though less than two years ago. Even though some crimes are sensitively decreased, however the tendency to crimes’ reduction confirmed by this data cannot be considered general because, on the other hand, it is registered an increase of those crimes that provoke a high social alarm (robberies, extortions and thefts). As we will notice through the graphics that we will soon analyze, the situation is different for what concerns the trend of robberies in the jewellery sector; this sector comprises either the robberies to shops/workshops and the robberies to carriers. This second category does not include the sending losses. Our analysis does not take in consideration the thefts because we do not consider them of great relevance in this field: the smash and grab and in general the thefts of valuables out of safes usually result in damages of low entity and the total thefts are extremely rare. Furthermore, not all the thefts are denounced to police forces. Details: Torino, Italy: Oliva & Associates, 2004. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 22, 2012 at http://www.olivaeassociates.it/downloads/2003_munich_-_crime_stat.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime Statistics (Italy) Robbery Shelf Number: 126093 |
Author: Dimico, Arcangelo Title: Origins of the Sicilian Mafi a: The Market for Lemons Summary: Since its first appearance in the late 1800s, the origins of the Sicilian mafi a have remained a largely unresolved mystery. Both institutional and historical explanations have been proposed in the literature through the years. In this paper, we develop an argument for a market structure-hypothesis, contending that mafi a arose in towns where fi rms made unusually high profi ts due to imperfect competition. We identify the market for citrus fruits as a sector with very high international demand as well as substantial fi xed costs that acted as a barrier to entry in many places and secured high profi ts in others. Using the original data from a parliamentary inquiry in 1881-86 on all towns in Sicily, we show that ma fia presence is strongly related to the production of orange and lemon. This result contrasts recent work that emphasizes the importance of land reforms and a broadening of property rights as the main reason for the emergence of ma fia protection. Details: Nottingham, UK: University of Nottingham, 2012. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: CREDIT Research Paper 12/01: Accessed November 2, 2012 at: http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/handle/10419/65483?langselector=en Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics and Crime Shelf Number: 126855 |
Author: Detotto, Claudio Title: Cycles in Crime and Economy Revised Summary: In the last decades, the interest in the relationship between crime and business cy- cle has widely increased. It is a diffused opinion that a causal relationship goes from economic variables to criminal activities, but this causal effect is observed only for some typology of crimes, such as property crimes. In this work we examine the possibility of the existence of some common factors (interpreted as cyclical components) driving the dynamics of Gross Domestic Product and a large set of criminal types by using the nonparametric version of the dynamic factor model. A first aim of this exercise is to detect some comovements between the business cycle and the cyclical component of some typologies of crime, which could evidence some relationships between these variables; a second purpose is to select which crime types are related to the business cycle and if they are leading, coincident or lagging. Italy is the case study for the time span 1991:1 - 2004:12; the crime typologies are constituted by the 22 official categories classified by the Italian National Statistical Institute. The study finds that most of the crime types show a counter-cyclical behavior with respect to the overall economic performance, and only a few of them have an evident relationship with the business cycle. Furthermore, some crime offenses, such as bankruptcy, embezzlement and fraudulent insolvency, seem to anticipate the business cycle, in line with recent global events. Details: Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia, 2011. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Papers, 2011/07: Accessed February 5, 2013 at: Year: 2011 Country: Italy Keywords: Business Cycles and Crime Shelf Number: 127516 |
Author: Ardizzi, Guerino Title: Money Laundering as a Financial Sector Crime - A New Approach to Measurement, with an Application to Italy Summary: Anti–money laundering regulations have been centred on the “Know-Your-Customer” rule so far, overlooking the fact that criminal proceedings that need to be laundered are usually represented by cash. This is the first study which tries to provide an answer to the question of how much of cash deposited via an official financial institution can be traced back to criminal activities. The paper develops a new approach to measure money laundering and then proposes an application to Italy, a country where cash is still widely used in transactions and criminal activities generate significant proceeds. In particular, we define a model of cash in-flows on current accounts and proxy money laundering with two indicators for the diffusion of criminal activities related to both illegal trafficking and extortion, controlling also for structural (legal) motivations to deposit cash, as well as the need to conceal proceeds from tax evasion. Using a panel of 91 Italian provinces observed over the period 2005-2008, we find that the average total size of money laundering is sizable, around 7% of GDP, 3/4 of which is due to illegal trafficking, while 1/4 is attributable to extortions. Furthermore, the incidence of “dirty money” coming from illegal trafficking is higher in the Centre-North than in the South, while the inverse is true for money laundering coming from extortions. Details: Munich, Germany: Center for Economic Studies (CES), the Ifo Institute and the CESifo GmbH (Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research), 2013. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 4127: Accessed February 27, 2013 at: http://www.cesifo-group.de/ifoHome/publications/working-papers/CESifoWP/CESifoWPdetails?wp_id=19076139 Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Extortion Shelf Number: 127738 |
Author: Stege, Ulrich Title: Betwixt and Between: Turin's CIE. A Human Rights Investigation into Turin's Immigration Detention Centre Summary: This report investigates the extent to which Italian, European and international human rights and migration law is applied in Turin’s centro di identificazione ed espulsione (Turin’s CIE); an immigration detention centre in northern Italy. This study was motivated by the fact that a number of institutions and organisations at local, national and international level have expressed concern about the current praxis of administrative detention of irregular migrants in Italy. The inconsistency between the explicit and implicit aims of immigration detention centers is of particular concern because it gives rise to a situation that is a fertile ground for abuse, inefficiencies and shocking human rights violations. In order to evaluate the application of human rights law in Turin’s CIE, the CIE Research Project considers both individual and systemic problems faced by detainees, their families and people who have direct contact with the centre in a professional or voluntary capacity. These problems are analysed in terms of the conditions of detention as well as the judicial and legal processes that surround immigration detention. Throughout the research a concerted attempt was made to give voice to the lived experience of interviewed migrants; an element which is unfortunately all too often missing from research on immigration in Italy. The research was limited to experiences of detention in Turin’s CIE in the period January 2011 - June 2012 inclusive. As part of this research project, twenty-nine recorded interviews of between forty and ninety minutes were conducted with current and former immigration detainees and experienced lawyers, NGO workers, religious volunteers and a journalist. The interviews were semi structured and different but comparable interview forms were used with different categories of interviewees. These forms were designed in a manner that aimed to reveal information necessary to evaluate the application of civil and political rights, as well as economic, cultural and social rights. Moreover, in order to try to access a broad cross-section of people with experience inside Turin’s CIE, researchers were available to conduct interviews fluently with foreign citizens in their choice of seven languages. The report also draws on a range of secondary sources both in terms of background research and methodological modelling. This report begins by assessing the conditions of detention inside Turin’s CIE in terms of: family relationships, children and CIE; a comparison between CIE and prison; practical day-to-day issues; health and medical issues; relationships with CIE staff; and relationships between detainees. Each of these issues are diverse and yet to an extent interrelated, since they all impact detainees’ everyday lives in detention, their vulnerability and their relative experiences of the conditions within which they live. The study attempts to paint a balanced picture of what it can mean to be detained inside Turin’s CIE; a centre that geographically a bus ride away from the parks, piazzas and coffee shops of Turin, and yet still seems a world away. The report then examines the judicial and legal processes concerning Turin’s CIE by considering: the extent to which detainees understand what CIE is; the Italian legal and procedural framework; relationships between detainees and lawyers; the role of embassies and consulates in the identification procedure; and political asylum and humanitarian protection. This investigation draws on the interviewees’ experiences in order to examine both the positive and negative ways in which the judicial and legal processes surrounding Turin’s CIE can serve to enhance or detract from our ability to give life to the text and intention of human rights law. Judicial and legal processes are two vital mechanisms through which the written word of human rights can be realised and made accessible to all. However, the research found that for CIE detainees judicial and legal processes can also be a great barrier to accessing rights because there is an absence of clear procedures and effective remedy, questionable training in some areas of the public administration and inadequate legal and linguistic assistance for vulnerable individuals. Around the world, political policies about immigration detention are controversial topics which are often linked to the political and economic environment of the day. Consequently, the study also summarises additional miscellaneous matters about Turin’s CIE, which assist to contextualise the centre in terms of its wider economic, social and political context. This report then concludes by presenting a list of seventeen specific problems that were identified as obstructing the full, practical and accessible implementation of human rights law and EU law both inside Turin’s CIE and in terms of the related Italian judicial and administrative procedures. The problems found relate to: family life and the effect that detaining parents has on children; insufficient health care; unsatisfactory protection for asylum seekers and humanitarian entrants; a lack of training and institutional support for people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities; the stressful and degrading nature of living in the CIE; controversies in the Italian administrative law system for deciding on and validating immigration detention; and the discrepancy between the level of rights protection that is afforded in immigration matters where liberty is at stake when compared with the criminal justice system. Details: Turin, Italy: International University College of Turin, Human Rights and Migration Law Clinic, 2012. 119p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2013 at: http://www.iuctorino.it/sites/default/files/docs/CIE_Report_September2012.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Human Rights Shelf Number: 128360 |
Author: Petrarca, Ilaria Title: The Historical Roots of Corruption and Economic Development in Italy Summary: We claim that a sequential mechanism linking history to development exists: first, history defines the quality of social capital; then, social capital determines the level of corruption; finally, corruption affects economic performance. We test this hypothesis on a dataset of Italian provinces, and address the possible endogeneity of corruption by applying an IV model. We use three sets of historical instruments for corruption: 1) foreign dominations in 16th-17th century, 2) autocracy/autonomous rule in the 14th century, and 3) an index of social capital between in the 19th-20th century. The results indicate a significant impact of historically-driven corruption on development. Details: Munich: Center for Economic Studies (CES), the Ifo Institute and the CESifo GmbH, 2013. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 4212; Accessed May 1, 2013 at www.cesifo.org/wp Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Corruption (Italy) Shelf Number: 128581 |
Author: Acconcia, Antonio Title: Mafia and Public Spending: Evidence on the Fiscal Multiplier from a Quasi-Experiment Summary: We estimate the multiplier relying on differences in spending in infrastructure across Italian provinces and an instrument identifying investment changes that are large and exogenous to local cyclical conditions. We derive our instrument from the Law mandating the interruption of public work on evidence of mafia infiltration of city councils. Our IV estimates on cross sectional data allow us to address common problems in time series analysis, such as the risk of estimating spuriously high multipliers because of endogeneity and reverse causation, or the risk of confounding the effects of fiscal and monetary measures. Accounting for contemporaneous and lagged effects, and controlling for the direct impact of anti-mafia measures on output, our results suggest a multiplier as high as 1.4 on impact, and 2 including dynamic effects. Details: Naples, Italy: CSEF - Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance, Department of Economics, University of Naples, 2013. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper no. 281: http://www.csef.it/wp/wp281.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 128851 |
Author: Immordino, Giovanni Title: Regulating Prostitution: Theory and Evidence from Italy Summary: We build an equilibrium model of prostitution where clients and sex workers choose to demand and supply sex under three legal regimes: prohibition, regulation and laissez-faire. The key feature is the endogenous evaluation of the risk as a consequence of policy changes. We calibrate the model to empirical evidence from Italy and then compare the effect of different policies on the equilibrium quantity of prostitution and on the harm associated with it. Details: Naples, Italy: CSEF - Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance, Department of Economics, University of Naples, 2012. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 308: Accessed May 30, 2013 at: http://www.csef.it/wp/wp308.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Prostitutes Shelf Number: 128852 |
Author: Di Martino, Alberto Title: The Criminalization of Irregular Immigration: Law and Practice in Italy Summary: The report presents the main findings of a research project on criminalization of irregular immigration and on the law and practice on expulsion and return of irregular immigrants. The core purpose is not just to analyze existing legislation – an already difficult task, given its complexity and incoherence due to the frequent changes introduced by the legislator and by decisions of the Constitutional Court – but to focus on everyday practice of Italian enforcement authorities. Our aim was to evaluate whether both legislation and practice comply with constitutional, European, and international law requirements. Moreover, in spite of the difficulty in gathering accessible data on the management of the Centers for Identification and Expulsion, this report attempts to evaluate the costs of management of irregular immigration. The system appears, even from a strictly economical point of view, both ineffective and inefficient. Last but not least, we sketch possible advocacy actions on specific issues. Details: Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2013. 176p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 16, 2013 at: http://www.wiss-lab.dirpolis.sssup.it/files/2013/05/Libro-dirpolis-1.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Migration (Italy) Shelf Number: 129418 |
Author: Barone, Guglielmo Title: The Effect of Organized Crime on Public Funds Summary: Organized crime is widely regarded as damaging to the economy, to say nothing of people’s lives. Yet little is known about the mechanism at work. This paper helps fill the gap by analyzing the impact of organized crime on the allocation of public subsidies to businesses. We assemble an innovative data set on Italian mafia crimes at municipal level and test whether organized crime diverts public funding. We exploit exogenous variations at the level of municipalities to instrument current mafia-style activity by using exogenous shifters of land productivity in the 19th century. Our results show that the presence of organized crime positively affects both the extensive margin (probability of funding) and the intensive margin (amount of public funding to enterprises). The impact is economically relevant and equal to at least one standard deviation of the dependent variable. Organized crime is also found to cause episodes of corruption in the public administration. A series of robustness checks confirm the findings. Our results suggest that geographically targeted aid policies should be careful to take local crime conditions into account. Details: Bologna: Bank of Italy, Economic Research Union, 2013. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Bank of Italy Temi di Discussione (Working Paper) No. 916 : Accessed July 17, 2013 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2281920 Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Organized Crime (Italy) Shelf Number: 129425 |
Author: Menichelli, Francesca Title: What's Crime Got To Do With It? CCTV, Urban Security and Governing Elites Summary: The implementation of an open-street CCTV system is usually accompanied by bold claims on the increase in efficiency - faster deployments of patrols - and in efficacy - prevention through normalisation - that it will bring about in day-to-day policing. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two medium-sized Italian cities where such systems have been recently implemented, the research sets out to challenge these assumptions by offering a backstage view of how surveillance is actually carried out on a day-to-day basis. Using the political and legislative changes that have taken place in Italy since the end of the '90s as a backdrop, the work supports the conclusion that, rather than for crime control, for which they were almost never used, cameras end up serving other goals, for the benefit of constituencies other than the residents of the two cities. Thus, CCTV needs to be understood as a device for the circulation of resources - monetary, discursive and normative - between different institutions and levels of government, part of a wider discursive regime that is only incidentally related to how crime actually affects a given city. Details: Milan: Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2012. 268p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed April 22, 2014 at: http://boa.unimib.it/handle/10281/31295#.U1apr0-PLcs Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: CCTV Shelf Number: 132130 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Legal Status and the Criminal Activity of Immigrants Summary: We exploit exogenous variation in legal status following the January 2007 European Union enlargement to estimate its effect on immigrant crime. We difference out unobserved time-varying factors by 1) comparing recidivism rates of immigrants from the "new" and "candidate" member countries and 2) using arrest data on foreign detainees released upon a mass clemency that occurred in Italy in August 2006. The timing of the two events allows us to set up a difference-in-differences strategy. Legal status leads to a 50 percent reduction in recidivism and explains one-half to two-thirds of the observed differences in crime rates between legal and illegal immigrants. Details: Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2014. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Upjohn Institute working paper ; 14-212: Accessed June 16, 2014 at: http://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1229&context=up_workingpapers Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime Immigration Shelf Number: 132478 |
Author: Kingston, Natasha Alana Title: Newcomers in Organised Crime: A case study of Giuseppe Rogoli's Sacra Corona Unita, 1979-1999 Summary: This thesis focuses on newcomers in organised crime, employing a case study on the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita (SCU) clan. The thesis tackles the following questions: Do newcomers in a crowded national context adopt their organisational structure in response to predominantly structural or agency factors?; Is the adopted organisational configuration stable or subject to change and fluctuations?; Finally, does this organisational configuration impact upon the success or failure of newcomers in the field of organised crime? In order to respond to these questions, the SCU was selected as a representative example of a newcomer in the Italian national context. A historiographical analytical approach was adopted and the thesis is, therefore, divided into three distinct time periods; the preorganised crime era in Apulia and the emergence of the first native organisation (the SCU); the early years of the SCU and emerging weaknesses at the heart of the organisation; and the era of the state counteroffensive and organisational decline. A structure and agency approach has been applied to the case study in order to address the different ages of the organisation vis-a-vis our research questions. Data, in the form of material from the principal trials, have been analysed to produce a narrative history of the organisation, enabling us to draw conclusions about the factors which may account for organisational success or failure. We focus on Italy as the home of European organised crime, but the SCU represents a distinct case due to its status as a newcomer, its relative anonymity, particularly on a global scale, and its complex and often incongruous history. It is in the interests of researchers and policy makers alike to investigate even the smaller, less successful organised crime syndicates if any cohesive and effective approach to combating the phenomenon is ever to be reached. Details: Bath, UK: University of Bath, 2012. 227p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 18, http://opus.bath.ac.uk/31668/1/UnivBath_PhD_2012_N_Kingston.pdf2014 at: Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Criminal Syndicates Shelf Number: 132713 |
Author: Riccardi, Michele Title: The Theft of Medicines from Italian Hospitals Summary: Along with counterfeiting, theft of medicines is emerging as the new frontier of pharmaceutical crime. In Italy between 2006 and 2013 one hospital out of ten has registered thefts of pharmaceuticals, suffering, on average, an economic loss of about 330 thousands euro each episode. This report represents the first study on this booming but almost unknown criminal phenomenon. In particular it carries out: - An exploration of the background behind pharmaceutical theft and of the drivers that influence the demand and the supply of stolen medicines; - An analysis, based on cases reported by media, of thefts of medicines from Italian hospitals between 2006 and 2013 Details: Milan, IT: Transcrime, 2014. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2014 at: http://www.transcrime.it/pubblicazioni/the-theft-of-medicines-from-italian-hospitals/ Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Hospitals Shelf Number: 132812 |
Author: Calderoni, Francesco Title: The Factbook on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products 2 - Italy Summary: This report is part of the project The Factbook on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. It focuses on Italy, where the illicit trade in tobacco seems to have grown in recent years. This fact, combined with the geographical location of the country and the consolidated presence of organised crime, makes Italy an interesting country to explore in terms of ITTP flows in the Mediterranean basin and towards North European countries. WHAT CAN BE FOUND IN THIS REPORT? This report is organised into three chapters: - Chapter one deals with the five drivers of the ITTP: society and economy, the legal market, regulation, the crime environment and enforcement. The drivers are important areas whose structures may positively or negatively impact on the ITTP. To enable comparison with other country profiles, five key indicators have been selected for each driver. The data for the driver indicators come from comparable sources (latest available years). When possible, the report provides the most up-to-date data from national sources. - Chapter two focuses on the four components of the ITTP: demand, supply, products, modus operandi and geographical distribution. - Chapter three identifies the key factors of the ITTP in Italy and frames the drivers in the components, analysing how different elements of the drivers influence the components of the ITTP. Details: Milan, IT: Transcrime, 2013. 110p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2014 at: http://www.transcrime.it/en/pubblicazioni/the-factbook-on-the-illicit-trade-in-tobacco-products-2-italia/ Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Cigarette Smuggling Shelf Number: 132816 |
Author: Lorenzini, Pietro Title: Immigration, Politics, Social Discord and Criminality in Italy Summary: The initial studies concerned with immigration in modern Italy emerged in the 1970s. They provided basic statistical information regarding the national origins, gender, religious identity, and racial and ethnic make-up of the migrants. As such immigration studies were commonly written within the framework of human rights, they were politicized in ways which often unveiled the political slant of researchers. Italian studies which touched upon immigration's relationship to criminality similarly demonstrated that questions regarding crime and migration are intertwined with contemporary Italian politics. Thus published studies which analyze immigration, crime and imprisonment often reflect the political bias of the researchers. By looking directly at Parliamentary laws and regulations, as well as analyzing government reports on immigration, crime and prisons, however, this study seeks to provide a non-partisan summary of immigration's true impact on law and crime in Italy. Key to the unbiased assessment of the relationship of immigration to social discord is the objective analysis of the statistical evidence provided in government reports on penitentiaries, crime and immigration. Therefore, though fully reviewing scholarly publications, this study depends in a fundamental way on statistical evidence regarding crimes and criminals as provided by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice and Department of Penitentiaries. In particular, to further explore the link between immigration and crime on a macro-level, this study seeks the aggregate impact of immigration on criminality by paying particular attention to the Italian government's statistical reports covering the period from the early 1990s through January 2012. While scholarly literature has not provided definitive proof linking immigration to increased crime rates, this study suggests that statistical evidence clearly demonstrates that immigrants do in fact constitute an alarmingly high percentage of those incarcerated in the Italian penitentiary system. Increased immigration has thus led to the imprisonment of large numbers of immigrants who have turned to criminality. A preliminary explanation offered herein suggests the significantly high immigration incarceration rates result from: the continued flow of massive numbers of immigrants into a nation socially and economy unprepared to deal with massive migration; governmental inability (largely due to a polarized national debate over whether it is necessary to stem massive immigration or not) to forge a comprehensive immigration policy which seeks to rationalize immigration laws; lack of legal jobs available to illegal immigrants and the concomitant existence of ample criminal opportunities to meet immigrants' daily needs. Details: Terre Haute, IN: Indiana State University, 2012. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed August 28, 2014 at: http://scholars.indstate.edu/handle/10484/4578 Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Immigrants and Crime Shelf Number: 129907 |
Author: Meier, Stephan Title: Trust and In-Group Favoritism in a Culture of Crime Summary: We use experiments in high schools in two neighborhoods in the metropolitan area of Palermo, Italy to experimentally demonstrate that the historical informal institution of organized crime can undermine current institutions, even in religiously and ethnically homogeneous populations. Using trust and prisoner's dilemma games, we found that students in a neighborhood with high Mafia involvement exhibit lower generalized trust and trustworthiness, but higher in-group favoritism, with punishment norms failing to resolve these deficits. Our study suggests that a culture of organized crime can affect adolescent norms and attitudes that might support a vicious cycle of in-group favoritism and crime that in turn hinders economic development. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2014. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 8169: Accessed September 2, 2014 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8169.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Mafia Shelf Number: 133164 |
Author: de Blasio, Guido Title: Down and Out in Italian Towns: Measuring the Impact of Economic Downturns on Crime Summary: The paper investigates the effect of local economic conditions on crime. The study focuses on Italy's local labor markets and analyzes the short-term response of crime to the severe slump of 2007-2009. It shows that the downturn led to a significant increase in economic-related offenses that do not require particular criminal skills or tools (namely, thefts); on the other hand, for offenses for which specific skills and criminal experience are essential (say, robberies) the impact of the crisis was negative. The results also suggest that: i) labor market institutions (i.e. wage supplementary schemes and pro-worker contractual arrangements) had a role in slowing down the effect of the economy on crime; ii) the link between the downturn and crime was weaker in areas where the presence of organized crime is relatively more intensive. Details: Rome: Bank of Italy, 2013. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Bank of Italy Temi di Discussione (Working Paper) No. 925 : Accessed September 15, 2014 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2293879 Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics and Crime (Italy) Shelf Number: 133323 |
Author: Bianchi, Milo Title: Immigration and Crime: An Empirical Analysis Summary: In this paper we examine the empirical relationship between immigration and crime across Italian provinces during the period 1990-2003. Drawing on police data, we first document that the size of the immigrant population is positively correlated with the incidence of property crimes and with the overall crime rate. We then use instrumental variables based on migration towards other European countries to identify the causal impact of exogenous changes in the immigrant population of Italy. According to these estimates, immigration increases only the incidence of robberies and has no effect on all other types of crime. Since robberies represent a very small fraction of all criminal offences, the effect on the overall crime rate is not significantly different from zero. Details: Rome: Bank of Italy, 2008. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 698: Accessed September 15, 2014 at: http://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/econo/temidi/td08/TD698_08/TD_698_08_en/en_tema_698.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Italy Keywords: Immigrants Shelf Number: 133324 |
Author: Ardizzi, Guerino Title: Measuring the underground economy with the currency demand approach: a reinterpretation of the methodology, with an application to Italy Summary: We contribute to the debate on how to assess the size of the underground or shadow economy with a reinterpretation of the traditional Currency Demand Approach (CDA) a la Tanzi. We introduce three main innovations. First, we take as dependent variable in the money demand equation a direct measure of the value of cash transactions: the flow of cash withdrawn from current accounts relative to total non-cash payments. This avoids use of the Fisher equation and so overcomes two severe criticisms of the traditional CDA. Second, instead of the tax burden, usually taken as the main motive for non-compliance, we include among the covariates two direct indicators of detected tax evasion. Finally, we also control for the role of illegal economic activity, such as drug dealing and prostitution, which - jointly with the shadow economy - contributes to the larger aggregate of the unobserved economy and represents a significant component of total cash payments. We then propose an application of this "modified CDA" to a panel of 91 Italian provinces for the years Details: Bank of Italy, 2012. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper no. 864: Accessed October 13, 2014 at: http://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/econo/temidi/td12/td864_12/en_td864/en_tema_864.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Financial Crimes Shelf Number: 133888 |
Author: International Commission of Jurists Title: "Undocumented": Justice for Migrants in Italy: A mission report Summary: The objective of protecting human rights and upholding the rule of law in the context of migration has grown ever more challenging and in the face of burgeoning migration to the European Union (EU). In this regard, there is no doubt that Italy is now one of the most important gateways to the EU. In recent years, the central Mediterranean route has reclaimed its central role for migration travels to mainland EU countries, as appears clear from graph no. 1 comparing the number of transits through the different entry routes to the EU. The situation has been exacerbated in 2014, when, according to UNHCR, by 14 August 2014 the number of arrivals of migrants and asylum seekers had reached around 100,000 persons, more than double the total numbers of 2013 (see, graph no. 1). At least since 2008, the response of Italy to the increased numbers of migrant arrivals to its shores had been one of rejection, an approach best exemplified by the policy of push-backs on the high seas designed and implemented through the infamous 2008 Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation with Libya during the reign of Muammar Gadaffi. Pursuant to that treaty, the Italian authorities began a practice of push-backs to Libya that was ultimately condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case Hirsi Jamaa and others v. Italy as a violation of the prohibition of collective expulsion, of the principle of non-refoulement and of the right to an effective remedy. Recently, fortunately, the situation on the high seas seemed to have improved. On 18 October 2013, Italy unilaterally activated the operation Mare Nostrum, through which the Italian military navy and aviation, the Carabinieri, the Guardia di Finanza, the Police, coastguard and the military personnel of the Italian Red Cross have been patrolling the high seas, but this time in order to rescue migrants in distress and to bring them ashore on Italian territory. Although the conduct of this ongoing operation is outside the scope of this report, the ICJ welcomes the efforts of Italy to save lives in the Mediterranean Sea under operation Mare Nostrum. Nonetheless, this laudable effort has naturally strained Italy's resources more than in the past. At its meeting with representatives of the Directorates of Civil Liberties and Immigration and of Public Security of the Italian Ministry of Interior, the mission heard that, at the time of the visit, there were some 47,000 persons held in reception centres and that the overall reception capacity of the country was overstretched. Details: Geneva, SWIT: International Commission of Jurists, 2014. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 29, 2015 at: http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5452554a4.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Immigrants Shelf Number: 134493 |
Author: Mosca, Michele Title: The Reuse for Social Aims of Illegal Assets and the Competition Policy. A New Network Strategy to Defeat Organized Crime with It Same "Weapon" Summary: The economic theory of crime considers criminal a rational individual, maximiser and perfectly informed on the costs and benefits of his/her actions, or rather fully able to decide whether to assume a deviant behaviour rather than devoting himself/herself to a legal activity. Such abstraction involves a fundamental implication regarding the policy of prevention and fight against crime, in particular organised crime: if the choice to violate a norm is rational and sustained by a very serious evaluation of the consequent expected utility of this behaviour, a more rational system of penal justice is needed, to reduce its number. Nevertheless, nowadays several impedimental factors make it difficult to realise effective incentive policies against organised crime. This paper aims at analysing the role of reusing for social purposes of the assets confiscated from criminal organisations (currently regulated by the New Anti-Mafia Code, issued by Legislative Decree No. 159/2011) and intends to show - using a theoretical model based on the insights of the Social Network Analysis and Theory of Evolving Networks - that is possible to defeat criminal networks using the same "weapons" which criminal organizations use, that is the same social capital and those same network of relationships which constitute their strength. Details: Naples, IT: University of Naples Federico II, Department of Economics, 2012. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 11, 2015 at: http://www.siecon.org/online/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mosca-Villani.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 134892 |
Author: Neanidis, Kyriakos C. Title: Crime versus Organized Crime in Italy: Do their Drivers Differ? Summary: This paper empirically examines the determinants of organized crime and of common crime in a panel of Italian regions over the period 1983-2003. In line with the literature, these factors include economic, socio-demographic, and crime-deterrence indicators. The analysis shows that both organized and common crimes respond symmetrically to some drivers, such as crime-deterrence variables and the share of a region's economically active population, reducing both categories of crime. At the same time, there are drivers that influence only one of these types of crime, with higher education and population density both raising organized crime. Overall, this study points to the importance of disentangling the examination of the factors that drive organized crime from those of common crime, useful for the development of strategies specific to addressing each type of crime. Details: Manchester, UK: Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research, Economic Studies, University of Manchester, 2014. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper Series, No. 190: Accessed April 29, 2015 at: http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/cgbcr/discussionpapers/dpcgbcr190.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime (Italy) Shelf Number: 135413 |
Author: Acconcia, Antonio Title: Accomplice-Witness and Organized Crime: Theory and Evidence from Italy Summary: We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade-off involved by the introduction of an accomplice-witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public officials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested by using data for Italy before and after the introduction of the 1991 accomplice-witness program. As predicted by the model and the earlier antitrust literature, the program appears to have strengthened deterrence and enhanced prosecution. Moreover, consistently with a novel prediction of our theory, the evidence suggests that the program efficacy is affected by the judicial system efficiency. Details: Naples: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Naples Federico II, 2013. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 29, 2015 at: http://thred.devecon.org/papers/2013/2013-010_Rey_Accomplice-Witness_and_Organized.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Organized Crime (Italy) Shelf Number: 135414 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Criminal Careers and Criminal Firms Summary: This study presents new evidence on that nature of criminal careers. Criminologists have studied and described "criminal careers" for over 80 years, beginning with 500 Criminal Careers, the landmark 1930 Glueck and Glueck study documenting the lives of the residents of a Massachusetts juvenile reform school. Our view of criminal careers differs from this long standing and esteemed research, much of which builds on Blumstein et al. (1986) and is recently reviewed in Piquero et al. (2013), in the sense that we will use the framework of labor economics to provide structure to our description of men who engage in robbery in Milan during the early 2000s. Our approach builds on the field of the "Economics of Crime" (Becker, 1968), where criminal behavior is assumed to respond to incentives, much like the behavior of workers and firms. This does not imply that only incentives matter; sociological and psychological factors are likely to matter as well but are not going to be discussed in this study. The contribution of this chapter follows from the comparative advantage that economists have in the quantitative analysis of large data sets derived from administrative records, as well as a clear understanding of concepts like endogeneity, causality, efficiency, incentives, opportunity cost, and general equilibrium. The questions we shed light on are also classics in economics: what is the relationship between age, nationality, or education and labor market entry, job mobility, or retirement? How do periods of unemployment affect future labor market activity? Does experience increase human capital, or are their simply high and low quality workers? We will use economic and econometric reasoning to think about recidivism and victim selection, and will also compare the distribution and productivity of "firms" in the robbery industry with basic facts about "legal firms" in the United States. The ultimate goal of our efforts is to derive sound policy implications that might improve the social wellbeing. There are four social "goods" that are derived from arrest, conviction, and incarceration. First, punishment deters potential criminals by increases the cost associated with criminal behavior. Second, incarceration in particular can physically prevent crime by removing offenders from society. Third, the experience of punishment can have a specific deterrent effect on established criminals, causes them to update their beliefs about the disutility associated with future punishments. Finally, knowing that a criminal has been punished provides non-criminal members of society with a sense of justice or, less diplomatically, vengeance for the committed offenses. In addition to describing the anatomy of criminal careers in Milan, we will also evaluate the extent to which governments in Milan are allocating their scarce resources in a way that achieves these goals. We address these old questions in economics and criminology in a new way, using two sources of administrative data from criminal justice agencies in Milan - the Questura di Milano and records of Dipartimento di Amministrazione Penitenziaria. Both data sources are used to highlight observed characteristics of robbers, and their robberies, that are associated with particularly destructive and socially harmful offenses, and also what characteristics are associated with harsher punishments. If judges assigned sentences in such a way that, in equilibrium, equated the marginal benefit of crime to its marginal cost, we would expect that characteristics that are associated with costly robberies are also associated with harsher punishments. Details: Unpublished paper, 2013. 102p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.frdb.org/upload/file/Report%202.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Criminal Careers Shelf Number: 135619 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Crime is Terribly Revealing: Information Technology and Police Productivity Summary: In an unprecedented information technology (IT) revolution in the public service sector, an increasing number of police departments use advanced statistical methods to improve their productivity in fighting crimes. Since 2007 the police department of Milan has been using a predictive policing software that is unique, as it not only produces aggregate crime predictions but also individual ones. This paper uses detailed information on individual crime incidents, coupled with offender-level identifiers produced by the software, to show that criminals follow habits, and that such habits make their future actions predictable. Using quasi- random assignment of crimes to two police forces that differ in the availability of this predictive policing software, this study shows that the adoption of this very advanced yet inexpensive IT innovation doubles the productivity of policing. Details: Unpublished paper, 2014. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.hec.unil.ch/documents/seminars/deep/1587.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Police Effectiveness Shelf Number: 135620 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Police and Clearance Rates: Evidence from Recurrent Redeployments Within a City Summary: More police reduces crime but little is know about the mechanism. Does more police deter crime by reducing its attractiveness, or is the reduction driven by increased arrest rates that incapacitate recurrent criminals? This paper exploits micro-level data on single robberies together with redeployments of two police forces within a city, providing first evidence of a direct link between police presence and the likelihood of clearing cases. During shift turnovers, reduced patrolling lowers the likelihood of identifying and arresting robbers, including would-be repeat offenders, from 13.5 to 8 percent. Only a handful of criminals seem to systematically target these periods to exploit these inefficiencies. Details: Unpublished paper, 2013. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.irs.princeton.edu/sites/irs/files/event/uploads/black_box51313.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Arrest Rates Shelf Number: 135621 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Optimizing Behavior During Bank Robberies: Theory and Evidence on the Two Minute Rule Summary: I use data on individual bank robberies to estimate the distribution of criminals' disutility of jail. The identification rests on the money versus risk trade-off that criminals face when deciding whether to stay an additional minute while robbing the bank. The observed (optimal) duration of successful robberies identifies the individual compensating variation of jail, called disutility of jail. The distribution of the disutility which is often assumed to be degenerate, resembles instead an earnings distribution, and highlights heterogeneity in the response to deterrence. General deterrence effects are increasing in criminal's disutility. Details: Unpublished paper, 2014. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.ceistorvergata.it/public/ceis/file/seminari/2014/mastrobuoni.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Deterrence Shelf Number: 135622 |
Author: Fraschini, Giorgio Title: Illicit Assets Recovery in Italy. Summary: Transparency International Italy (TI -It), in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Naples, presents today, February 27th, the report "ILLICIT ASSETS RECOVERY IN ITALY - Enhancing Integrity and Effectiveness of Illegal Asset Confiscation" at the Chamber of Commerce in Naples. The report is the result of a research carried out within the European project "Enhancing Integrity and Effectiveness of Illegal Asset Confiscation - European Approaches" ( www.confiscation.eu), commissioned and funded by the European Commission. Transparency International Italy participates in the project along with two other national chapters of Transparency International: Transparency International Romania and Bulgaria. The cooperation among European partners is even more important now in light of the resolution adopted by the European Parliament two days ago in order to facilitate the confiscation proceedings and the cooperation among national authorities of EU Member States. The Italian report digs into our illicit assets confiscation system, through a detailed analysis of the legislation, interviews and statistics. It investigates the weaknesses of the system and also promotes practical recommendations. Considering the urgency of fighting corruption in Italy, confiscation of assets coming from illegal activities, such as corruption, becomes crucial, because it has both a punitive and preventive value. "Italian legislation reflects this duality, which is almost a unique worldwide: Italy has in fact both a criminal and preventive system of confiscation" - researchers Chiara Putaturo and Giorgio Fraschini say - "The strong precautionary power of confiscation lies mainly in the re-use of assets for social purposes. If properly implemented , it has a high educational and exemplary value for the entire community". Maria Teresa Brassiolo, Past President of Transparency International Italy, highlights one of the main risks: "Unfortunately, most confiscated companies are not efficiently managed. This must to be solved immediately. The weakness or the closure of legal businesses can create a strong negative image of a context where criminal organisations can run their activities and create jobs, hiding the dark side of illegality, such as tax evasion, labour and insurance violations. Criminals, at the same time benefit, without paying, from infrastructure , schools, hospitals, which are finanaced by citizens and legal firms". TI-It offers a list of recommendations: - A consolidated act of law on confiscation - Speeding up judicial and assignment procedures - Strengthening of the National Agency for the administration and the assignment of the goods seized and confiscated from criminal organizations - Computerising the system - Immediate availability of funds recovered through the sale of movable assets to support the effective management of immovable assets and companies - allocation and efficient use of resources of the Justice Unique Fund for the management of seized companies, too - Involvement of expert with managerial skills - Implementation of the support units at the Prefectures - Establishment of a monitoring system Details: Naples: Transparency International Italia, 2013. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Enhancing Integrity and Effectiveness of Illegal Asset Confiscation - European Approaches" project report: http://www.transparency.bg/media/cms_page_media/141/NationalReport_TI-IT_en_Illicit_Assets_Recovery_in_Italy.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Asset Forfeiture Shelf Number: 136290 |
Author: D'Alisa, Giacomo Title: Victims in the "Land of Fires": A case study on the consequences of buried and burnt waste in Campania, Italy Summary: The "Land of Fires" indicates an area in Campania, in the south of Italy were, systematically, since the end of the '80s, toxic wastes have been dumped by organized crime (i.e., camorra, the name for the Neapolitan mafia). Organised crime plays, as a matter of fact, a significant role in the waste management industry; however, organized criminals are not the only players. Although in the public opinion the mafia clans are the most important subjects involved in the illegal waste trafficking, a significant role is also played in this field by many businessmen and firms. Corruption is a crucial element that connects all these actors in the waste sector, characterized by the grant of public licenses and authorizations. Moreover, this sector needs large economic investments and has to face a huge bureaucratic machine, which makes the ground even more fertile for corruption. All these conditions hamper the competition and facilitate the creation and the development of oligopolistic forces, where the strength of mafia intimidation turns out to be particularly effective. The weak (or the absolute lack of) enforcement power at both national and regional levels has been used to explain this widespread illegal situation, but responsibilities actually lie at various governance levels, spanning from inefficient bureaucracy to political patronage and criminal malfeasance. Moreover, the lack of adequate (and effectively enforced) waste management policies has created institutional and regulatory uncertainty which fosters the illegal market of waste. On these premises, with the present case study report we aim to investigate how and why some associations and organizations become a reference point for the victims of those waste-related environmental crimes. The victims of the present analysis are not such ex-lege, but are those people who maintain the status of being victims of illegal waste disposal, and that were identified through several semi-structured interviews. An affiliation networks analysis was developed to study how the victims interacted over time with different associations; the findings obtained allows us to say that victims are strengthening their relationships with local associations in the network and are starting to play an important role to reinforce their socio-political and judicial actions and to combat the illegal practices that can considerably affect their lives. Details: Rome: University of Rome, 2015. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Case study compiled as part of the EFFACE project. Accessed August 21, 2015 at: http://efface.eu/sites/default/files/EFFACE%20Victims%20in%20the%20Land%20of%20Fires_0.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Waste Shelf Number: 136525 |
Author: Tenti, Valentina Title: Framing Mafia Infiltration in the Public Construction Industry in Italy Summary: The aim of this study is to outline the Italian mafia organizations, namely Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra, and to frame the phenomenon of mafia infiltration in the public construction industry in Italy. In particular, the main objectives of the report are: 1. to single out specificities of the southern Italian mafia phenomenon and to provide a description of the three traditional Italian organized crime groups; 2. to illustrate patterns of mafia infiltration in the public construction industry in Italy. Details: Quebec: Commission denqute sur loctroi et la gestion des contrats publics dans lindustrie de la construction, 2012. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 31, 2015 at: https://www.ceic.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_client/centre_documentaire/Piece_7P-119.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy Keywords: Construction Industry Shelf Number: 103 |
Author: Argentiero, Amedeo Title: Tax Evasion and Economic Crime. Empirical Evidence from Italy Summary: This paper examines the impact of tax evasion on criminal activities in Italy. Precisely, we consider three types of crime particularly related to economic determinants: property crimes (including robberies, thefts and car thefts), frauds and usury. By using annual data for the Italian provinces (NUTS-3) over the period 2006 to 2010 to estimate a dynamic panel, we show that tax evasion substitutes both, frauds and usury, whereas crimes against the property are positively affected by tax evasion. Interestingly, the degree of substitution for fraud and usury is related to the size of tax burden. Moreover, the estimates indicate that these crimes show a different persistency over time, reflecting different adjustment costs. Finally, we find statistical significance and the expected sign for deterrence only for property crimes whereas frauds and usury are not influenced by any deterrence or clearing-up variable. Details: Munich: Center for Economic Studies and the Ifo Institute, 36p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 5497: Accessed September 18, 2015 at: https://www.cesifo-group.de/ifoHome/publications/working-papers/CESifoWP/CESifoWPdetails?wp_id=19171717 Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Financial Crime Shelf Number: 136830 |
Author: Buonanno, Paolo Title: Social Closure, Surnames and Crime Summary: This paper studies the effect of social closure on crime and tax evasion rates using disaggregated data for Italian municipalities. It measures the degree of social openness of a community by the diversity of its surname distribution, which reflects the history of migration and inbreeding. It shows that, all else equal, communities with a history of social closure have lower crime rates and higher tax evasion rates than more open communities. The effect of social closure is likely to be causal, it is relevant in magnitude, statistically significant, and robust to changes in the set of included controls, in the specific measures of dependent and independent variables, in the specification of the regression equation, and in the possible sample splits. Our findings are consistent with the idea that social closure strengthens social sanctions and social control, thus leading to more cooperative outcomes in local interactions, but it reduces cooperation on a larger scale. Details: Bologna: University of Bologna, Department of Economics, 2015. Source: Internet Resource: Quaderni - Working Paper DSE N 1032 , Accessed October 30, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2669421 Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics and Crime Shelf Number: 137174 |
Author: Mastrorocco, Nicola Title: Information and Crime Perceptions: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Summary: This paper investigates the influence of media on the beliefs and perceptions individuals hold, with a focus on crime perceptions. We study the case of Italy, where the majority of television channels have been under the influence of the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for more than a decade. First, we document that these channels systematically over represent crime news compared to others. We then test if individuals revise their perceptions about crime when exposure to news programs broadcast by a specific group of partisan channels is reduced. In order to identify the causal effect we exploit a natural experiment in the Italian television market where the staggered introduction of the digital TV signal led to a drastic drop in the viewing shares of the channels above. Combining unique data on each channel's crime news coverage and prime-time viewing shares, we find that reduced exposure to crime-related news decreased concerns about crime, an effect that is mainly driven by older individuals who, on average, watch more television and use alternative sources of information (such as Internet, radio and newspapers) less frequently. Finally, we show that this change in crime perceptions is likely to have important implications for voting behaviour. Details: London: Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration Department of Economics, University College London, 2016. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper Series CPD 01/16: Accessed February 17, 2016 at: http://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_01_16.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Communication Shelf Number: 137862 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Criminal Discount Factors and Deterrence Summary: The trade-off between the immediate returns from committing a crime and the future costs of punishment depends on an offender's time discounting. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in sentence length generated by a large collective pardon in Italy and provide non-parametric evidence on the extent of discounting from the raw data on recidivism and sentence length. Using a discrete-choice model of recidivism, we estimate an average annual discount factor of 0.74, although there is heterogeneity based on age, education, crime type, and nationality. Our estimates imply that the majority of deterrence is derived from the first few years in prison. Details: Unpublished paper, 2016. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 24, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2730969 Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Deterrence Shelf Number: 137946 |
Author: Financial Action Task Force Title: Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures: Italy. Mutual Evaluation Report Summary: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted an assessment of Italy's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system, based on the 2012 FATF Recommendations, and using the 2013 Methodology. The assessment is a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of Italy's AML/CFT system and its level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations. Italy has a strong legal and institutional framework to fight ML and TF. Authorities have a good understanding of the money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks the country faces. There is generally good policy cooperation, coordination, and financial intelligence gathering and use. The authorities are able to successfully undertake large and complex money laundering and terrorist financing investigations and prosecutions, and beneficial ownership information is generally accessible to authorities. There are areas where improvements are needed. Italy should enhance its ML investigative and prosecutorial action on risks associated with self-laundering, stand-alone money laundering, and foreign predicate offenses, and the abuse of legal persons. Italy should enhance the accessibility of relevant information and dissemination of analysis by its FIU, strengthen sanctions, and improve financial sectors' and DNFBPs' understanding and implementation of requirements for beneficial ownership identification Details: Paris: FATF, 2016. 230p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 29, 2016 at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/mer4/MER-Italy-2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Financial Crimes Shelf Number: 137998 |
Author: Alesina, Alberto Title: Organized Crime, Violence, and Politics Summary: We investigate how criminal organizations strategically use violence to influence elections and national politics in order to get captured politicians elected. The model offers novel testable implications about the level of electoral violence under different types of electoral systems and different degrees of electoral competition. We test these implications by exploiting data on homicide rates in Italy since 1887, and compare the extent of 'electoral-violence cycles' between areas with higher and lower presence of organized crime, under democratic and non-democratic regimes, and different types of electoral rules. We provide additional evidence on the influence of organized crime on politics using the parliamentary discourses of politician-selected in Sicily during the period 1945-2013. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series; Working Paper 22093: Accessed March 21, 2016 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w22093.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 138343 |
Author: Defence for Children International - Italy Title: Twelve: Children's Right to Participation and the Juvenile Justice System: National Report Italy Summary: In accordance with the main international and EU standards on children's rights and with the Child Friendly Justice Guidelines (CFJG) of the Council of Europe, children should have access to an adequate treatment in justice. Listening to children, hearing their views and recommendations, understanding their aspirations and concerns and taking them into account for decision making processes is key for policy and practice to become more appropriate and effective. It is also a human rights imperative under article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and a prerequisite for achieving compliance with international standards. International and European bodies have repeatedly encouraged states to adapt their legal systems to the specific needs of children. However national juvenile justice systems do not take CRC into consideration on a permanent basis, which often leads to not considering the real needs of children and adapting the system to them. Including participation and listening (art. 12 CRC) as core elements of actions concerning children is conducive to more efficient practices and improved communication. It is also a human rights imperative under article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and a prerequisite for achieving compliance with international standards. International and European bodies have repeatedly encouraged states to adapt their legal systems to the specific needs of children. However national juvenile justice systems do not take CRC into consideration on a permanent basis, which often leads to not considering the real needs of children and adapting the system to them. Including participation and listening (art. 12 CRC) as core elements of actions concerning children is conducive to more efficient practices and improved communication. Consequently, properly trained professionals working in the context of Juvenile Justice (JJ) on this is one of the first required actions for the purpose of a child-friendly system compliant with children's rights. The main goal of the project TWELVE is to contribute to the implementation of article 12 of the CRC, in line with the General Comment No. 14 (2013) of the CRC, in the field of JJ at the European level by developing a multidisciplinary training process aimed at strengthening and harmonising the skills and capacities of professionals in addressing children's rights and specific needs as a key element of an appropriate, efficient and inclusive action. The project will focus on the context of criminal proceedings. To achieve this goal the project will be structured around three interlinked pillars: analytical national activities to properly assess the real needs both of children in conflict with the law and professionals working with them in 3 EU countries (IT, BE, ES); training activities to develop and replicate a multidisciplinary training program aimed at improving the understanding of the CRC and informing professionals about how to implement its provisions in their daily practice in 6 countries (IT, BE, ES, BG, GR, EE); a Training Programme and an Handbook will be soon available. dissemination activities to ensure a European dimension as well as to share information and exchange ideas among professionals involved in JJ within the EU. Details: Rome: Defence for Children International Italy, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 22, 2016 at: http://www.defenceforchildren.it/files/twelve_Italy_.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Juvenile Justice Reform Shelf Number: 138383 |
Author: Blackburn, Keith Title: Organized Crime, Corruption and Growth: Theory and Evidence Summary: We develop a framework for studying the interactions between organized crime and corruption, together with the individual and combined effects of these phenomena on economic growth. Criminal organizations co-exist with law-abiding productive agents and potentially corrupt law enforcers. The crime syndicate obstructs the economic activities of agents through extortion, and may pay bribes to law enforcers in return for their compliance in this. We show how organized crime has a negative effect on growth, and how this effect may be either enhanced or mitigated in the presence of corruption. The latter of these possibilities is evidenced strongly in an exhaustive empirical investigation using a panel of Italian regions for the period 1983-2009. Details: Manchester, UK: Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research, Economic Studies, University of Manchester, 2015. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper Series No. 210: Accessed March 26, 2016 at: http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/cgbcr/discussionpapers/dpcgbcr210.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 138433 |
Author: Nese, Annamaria Title: Cooperation, Punishment and Organized Crime: A Lab-in-the Field Experiment in Southern Italy Summary: This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation which allows a deeper insight into the nature of social preferences amongst organized criminals and how these differ from "ordinary" criminals on the one hand and from the non-criminal population in the same geographical area on the other. We provide experimental evidence on cooperation and response to sanctions by running Prisoner's Dilemma and Third Party Punishment games on three different pools of subjects; students, 'Ordinary Criminals' and Camorristi (Neapolitan 'Mafiosi'). The latter two groups being recruited from within prisons. We are thus able to separately identify 'Prison' and 'Camorra' effects. Camorra prisoners show a high degree of cooperativeness and a strong tendency to punish, as well as a clear rejection of the imposition of external rules even at significant cost to themselves. In contrast, ordinary criminals behave in a much more opportunistic fashion, displaying lower levels of cooperation and, in the game with Third Party punishment, punishing less as well as tending to punish cooperation (almost as much) as defection. Our econometric analyses further enriches the analysis demonstrating inter alia that individuals' locus of control and reciprocity are associated with quite different and opposing behaviours amongst different participant types; a strong sense of self-determination and reciprocity both imply a higher propensity to cooperate and to punish for both students and Camorra inmates, but quite the opposite for ordinary criminals, further reinforcing the contrast between the behaviour of ordinary criminals and the strong internal mores of Camorra clans. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2016. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 9901: Accessed April 27, 2016 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9901.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 138823 |
Author: Gamba, Astrid Title: Organized Crime and the Bright Side of Subversion of Law Summary: When Legislators award amnesties to 'low-rank' criminals cooperating with the justice, top criminals may capture public officials to avoid being sanctioned. Optimal policies should anticipate this danger and fight it back by granting amnesties not only to low-rank criminals, but also to officials who plea guilty and report bribe givers. Even if the threat of being betrayed by their fellows may induce top-criminals to bribe prosecutors, these policies increase the conviction risk not only for top-criminals but also for low-rank ones, whereby increasing the risk premium that they require to participate in the crime. This domino effect can deter crime more than a policy based only on amnesties to low-rank criminals would: the bright side of subversion of law. Details: Milan: Department of Economics, Management and Statistics, University of Milan Bicocca, 2016. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: University of Milan Bicocca Department of Economics, Management and Statistics Working Paper No. 326 : Accessed June 11, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2776762 Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Organized Crime Shelf Number: 139393 |
Author: Palumbo, Letizia Title: Trafficking and Labour Exploitation in Domestic Work and the Agricultural Sector in Italy Summary: In Italy, as in many European countries, agriculture and domestic work are sectors characterised by high levels of irregular work without contract and with no respect of minimum pay, humane living conditions or access to basic services. Generalised informality however sometimes leads to cases of sever exploitation and outright human trafficking. This report focuses on the conditions that can lead from irregular work to abuse and trafficking in agriculture and domestic work - we question the cultural and economic aspects that make such situations possible. We also review the relevant legislation punishing exploiters and protecting victims with a view of identifying existing gaps and make suggestions for improvement. Indeed while the Italian legal framework is particularly progressive as regards the assistance and protection of victims of trafficking and severe exploit ation, related legal practices and implementation of policies on the ground suffer from several shortcomings. For instance, the implementation of Article 18 of Legislative Decree No. 286/1998, which provides victims of exploitation and trafficking with spe cial protection and assistance as well as with a residence permit for humanitarian reasons, has been arbitrary and inconsistent throughout the country, especially in cases of labour exploitation. In addition, Italy has inadequately transposed into national law Directive 2011/36/EU on trafficking and lacks a comprehensive law on labour exploitation. In recent years anti -trafficking interventions have not been a priority and programmes for assistance of victims of trafficking and severe exploitation have been under -funded. There is no effective system of data collection on the victims participating in these programmes; the national plan against trafficking has been adopted only recently (February 2016) after a severe delay of more than one year with respect to the established deadline; there is a lack of structured campaigns against t rafficking and serious exploitation. This report stresses the need for an integrated and comprehensive approach to trafficking and labour exploitation in agriculture and domestic w ork and makes specific recommendations for each of the two sectors. Details: Italy: European University Institute, 2016. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 1, 2016 at: http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/42406/GGP_TRAFFICKO_2016_EN.pdf?sequence=3 Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Domestic Workers Shelf Number: 139910 |
Author: Palumbo, Letizia Title: Demand in the Context of Trafficking in Human Beings in the Domestic Work Sector in Italy Summary: Notwithstanding significant demand for domestic workers in Europe, sub-standard conditions and informal work-arrangement persist. Despite various national contexts and policies, this labour sector mostly composed of migrant women still face vulnerability to abuses, exploitation, as well as trafficking. Informal work arrangement still prevails. A new study on trafficking in domestic work brings visibility and new data on this under-researched and hidden phenomenon happening in Europe. This study examines the demand-side of trafficking in domestic work in Italy in its multiple facets (diplomatic household, domestic worker visa regime, aupair, child fostering, etc.). It is part of a series of studies conducted in 7 European countries, from southern, central and northern Europe: Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and the UK. Looking at the demand-side of trafficking in domestic work brings back at the core of the discussion: the private nature of the employer/employee relationship which often escapes regulation, monitoring and sanctioning. Domestic work is still largely undervalued and hardly perceived as 'real' form of work. Details: Vienna: ICMPD, 2016. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: DemandAT Country Study No. 5: Accessed August 1, 2016 at: http://www.demandat.eu/sites/default/files/DemandAT_CountryStudies_5_Italy_Palumbo.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Domestic Workers Shelf Number: 139912 |
Author: Galletta, Sergio Title: Law Enforcement, Municipal Budgets and Spillover Effects: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Italy Summary: In this paper, I empirically investigate the presence of spillover effects resulting from the strengthening of law enforcement against corruption and organized crime in local governments. Specifically, I take advantage of an Italian law that gives power to the central government to replace democratically elected municipal officials who are potentially connected with mafia with a commission of non-elected administrators. Fixed effects model estimates that focus on a sample of municipalities from three Italian regions (Campania, Calabria and Sicilia) for the period 1998 to 2013 show that the city council dismissal of a municipality fosters a reduction in public investments in neighboring municipalities. Additional empirical evidence suggests that this result could be explained by the presence of law enforcement spillovers potentially reducing misconducts in neighboring municipalities Details: Munich: Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute, 2016. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 5707: Accessed August 1, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2744541 Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Mafia Shelf Number: 139929 |
Author: di Bella, Enrico Title: Introducing Spatial Configuration in Crime Count Models Summary: The main techniques used for quantitative analyses of urban crime can generally be divided into three categories: descriptive studies of crime dispersion over a specific urban area without any substantial statistical modeling, traditional statistical spatial models whose normality assumptions do not hold and count models which do not take into account the spatial configuration of the urban layouts. In this work we discuss how configurational components can be introduced in the count data modeling of crime illustrating our point with a case study centered on a highly populated area of the City of Genoa on three crime typologies. The statistical modeling of crime at street level is performed using count models which include the usual economic and socio-demographic variables, complemented with a set of configurational variables, built using the techniques of Space Syntax Analysis, in order to include, among the regressors, the graph complexity of the urban structure. The configurational variables included in this model are statistically significant, consistently with the criminological theories stating that the urban layout has a role in crime dispersion over a city and their use among the set of regressors, substantially improves the overall goodness of fit of the models. The configurational variables herein introduced add an implicit spatial correlation structure of crime to the models and give new and useful information to Municipalities to interpret how crime patterns relate to the urban layout and how to intervene through the means of urban planning to reduce or prevent crime. Details: Genoa: Universit degli Studi di Genova, 2013. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: DEP Working Papers Series no.2 : Accessed October 14, 2016 at: http://www.dep.unige.it/RePEc/gea/wpaper/dwpo-2-jun2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: CPTED Shelf Number: 144800 |
Author: Chiarini, Bruno Title: Is the Severity of the Penalty an Effective Deterrent? A Strategic Approach for the Crime of Tax Evasion Summary: In order to analyze the severity of sentencing, and to show how the probabilistic interpretation of strategic behavior can be tricky, this paper uses the crime strategic model (inspection game) proposed by Tsebelis. This model shows that any attempts to increase the severity of punishment will alter the payoff of the individuals involved, leaving unchanged the frequency of violation at equilibrium. This result is misleading: payoffs are not independent and the crime game can not be simply read with mixed strategies. These are inconclusive on how the players act rationally. This is undeniably true for the crime of tax evasion, where the dishonest taxpayers are rational agents, motivated by the comparison of payoffs, considering the risk of breaking the law. Although an irreducible minimum of uncertainty remains, the Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies provides us with the necessary information on equilibria in pure strategies that will be played. In this context, tougher sentencing deters crime, although, as the Italian historical experience teaches, the necessary condition required is the certainty of punishment and the ability of the government to enforce it. Details: Munich: Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute (CESifo, 2016. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 6112: Accessed October 19, 2016 at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_6112.html Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Deterrence Shelf Number: 145894 |
Author: Pinotti, Paolo Title: Clicking on Heaven's Door: The Effect of Immigrant Legalization on Crime Summary: We estimate the effect of immigrant legalization on the crime rate of immigrants in Italy by exploiting an ideal regression discontinuity design: fixed quotas of residence permits are available each year, applications must be submitted electronically on specific "Click Days", and are processed on a first-come, first-served basis until the available quotas are exhausted. Matching data on applications with individual-level criminal records, we show that legalization reduces the crime rate of legalized immigrants by 0.6 percentage points on average, on a baseline crime rate of 1.1 percent. The effect persists for (at least) two years after legalization. Details: London: Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), University College London, 2016. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper Series; CPD 25/16: Accessed November 16, 2016 at: http://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_25_16.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Immigrants Shelf Number: 144852 |
Author: Beraldo, Sergio Title: Life is now! Time Preferences and Crime: Aggregate Evidence from the Italian Regions. Summary: This paper tests the relationship between time preferences and crime rates as posited by Davis (1988), whose theoretical analysis suggests that individuals' attitude towards the future significantly affects their propensity to commit crime. Our empirical analysis is based on a panel of Italian regions from 2003 to 2007. Various proxies for time preferences are considered: the consumer credit share out of the total amount of loans to households, the share of obese individuals out of the total population, the rate of marriages out of the total population, and the teenage pregnancy rate. Controlling for a great number of factors suggested by the scientific literature on the determinants of crime, adding to the model also time and regional fixed effects, and clustering standard errors to account for both serial and panel correlations, our results basically provide support to the 'Davis' hypothesis' for property crimes, while for violent crimes there seems to be less evidence that these are higher where people discount the future more heavily. Moreover, there is no evidence of a reverse effect from crime to time preferences at this aggregate level. Details: Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2013. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 49865: Accessed December 7, 2016 at: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/49865/1/MPRA_paper_49865.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Property Crime Shelf Number: 147947 |
Author: Detotto, Claudio Title: Counting the Cost of Crime in Italy Summary: The aim of this paper is to gauge the cost of crime in Italy by concentrating on a subset of offences covering about 64% of total recorded crime in year 2006. Following the breakdown of costs put forward by Brand and Price, we focus on the costs in anticipation, as a consequence and in response to a specific offence. The estimated total social cost is more than € 38 billion, which amounts to about 2.6% of Italy’s GDP. To show the usefulness of these measures, we borrow the elasticity estimates from recent studies concerning the determinants of crime in Italy and calculate the cost associated with the surge in crime fuelled by unemployment and pardons. Indeed, in both cases such costs are substantial, implying that they should no longer be skipped when assessing the relative desirability of public policies towards crime. Details: Caligari, Italy: Centre For North South Economic Research, 2010. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 2010/13: Accessed December 19, 2016 at: 25p. Year: 2010 Country: Italy Keywords: Costs of Crime Shelf Number: 147755 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Police Disruption and Performance: Evidence from Recurrent Redeployments within a City Summary: More policing reduces crime but little is known about the mechanism. Does policing deter crime by reducing its attractiveness, or because it leads to additional arrests of recurrent criminals? This paper provides evidence of a direct link between policing and arrests. During shift changes a peculiar redeployment of police patrols belonging to separate police forces disrupts policing and lowers the likelihood of clearing robberies with an arrest by 30 percent. There is no evidence that criminals exploit these dips in police performance. A back of the envelope calculation suggests that incapacitation explains 2/3 of the elasticity between robberies and policing. Details: Berlin: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2015. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA DP No. 8799: Accessed April 21, 2017 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8799.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Deterrence Shelf Number: 145063 |
Author: D'Angelo, Elena Title: Organized Crime and the Legal Economy: The Italian Case Summary: Italy's economy is one of the largest, not only in Europe but also with reference to the global context. Its financial and industrial sectors are significant. In addition, domestic organized crime groups, especially the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta, and the Cosa Nostra, operate across numerous economic sectors, both in Italy and abroad, and their illicit proceeds represent the main source of laundered funds. Illicit markets remain the main source of profit for organized crime groups in Italy, and more broadly in Europe. There have been various attempts to estimate the total revenue of organized crime in Italy. For example, the U.S. Department of State (2015) estimated Italy's black market to be to 12.4% of the country's GDP, approximately $250 billion. The Italian Parliament's Antimafia Commission estimated that the total turnover of endogenous organized crime in Italy valued at L150 billion in 2012. However, the border between illegal and legal activities of organized crime is hard to define. Financial as well as human resources are increasingly being circulated from one sector to the other, without interruption. While maintaining their interests in traditional fields of action related to illicit trade, organized crime groups have been expanding their presence and influence into the legal economy - creating threats to society on an array of levels. Research Questions Two main research questions (RQs) guide the present study: 1. How does organized crime infiltrate the legal economy? 2. What is the impact of organized crime infiltration in the legal economy? The qualitative section of the report answers the first RQ, further detailed in the following subquestions: 1. What are the main reasons behind the diversification of investments into the legal sector? 2. Which is organized crime's modus operandi? 3. How does organized crime exploit existing vulnerabilities and what are the facilitating factors? Details: Torino, Italy: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), 2016. 111p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2017 at: http://files.unicri.it/UNICRI_Organized_Crime_and_Legal_Economy_report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Markets Shelf Number: 145251 |
Author: Biancotti, Claudia Title: Cyber attacks: Preliminary evidence from the Bank of Italy's business surveys Summary: This paper presents preliminary evidence on cyber risk in the Italian private sector based on the Bank of Italy's annual surveys of Italian industrial and service firms. The information collected, albeit only covering the incidence of cyber attacks and some aspects of security governance, is the first of its kind for Italy. The results are striking: even though a mere 1.5 per cent of businesses do not deploy any cyber-security measures, 30.3 per cent - corresponding to 35.6 per cent of total employees - report at least some damage from a cyber attack between September 2015 and September 2016. Once data are corrected to account for unwillingness to report or inability to detect attacks on the part of some respondents, these figures climb to 45.2 and 56 per cent respectively, with large, high-tech and internationally exposed businesses faring worse than average. The economy-wide risk level is likely to be higher still; the financial sector, healthcare, education and social care are excluded from the sample, but they are known from other sources to be particularly appealing to attackers. Details: Rome: Bank of Italy, 2017. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Occasional Paper, no. 373: Accessed May 10, 2017 at: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2017-0373/QEF_373.pdf?language_id=1 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Computer Crimes Shelf Number: 145393 |
Author: Caglayan, Mustafa Title: Organized Crime and Technology Summary: This paper investigates the relation between the presence of organized crime and the technology level in north Italy. Our analysis proposes two provincial indexes. The first portrays technology at a fine-grained industrial sector level. The second describes mafia-type organizations in line with the investigation approach currently used by Italian National Antimafia Directorate (DNA) and Antimafia District Directorates (DDAs). With these indexes, we provide empirical evidence that in north Italy, the larger the presence of organized crime, the less innovation and the technological level of the industrial fabric. Our reading of this finding is that without organized crime, Nature selects agents according to their capacity to innovate. Instead, with organized crime, agents can choose an alternative strategy: relate with organized crime, which hinders innovation. Modelling the interaction innovation - relation with mafias by evolutionary game theory, we show that the presence of organized crime, through natural selection, leads to low levels of technology. Our model also shows how to use sanctions and indemnities to address the problem. Details: Pavia, Italy: Universit di Pavia, Department of Economics and Management, 2017. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: DEM Working Paper Series no. 136: Accessed September 16, 2017 at: http://economia.unipv.it/docs/dipeco/quad/ps/RePEc/pav/demwpp/DEMWP0136.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Mafia Shelf Number: 147368 |
Author: Center for the Study of Democracy Title: Countering Extortion Racketeering: The Italian Experience Summary: The Italian approach to countering extortion racketeering is based on a synergy between policies against the larger issue of organised and mafia-type crime and specialised measures that tackle this specific problem. The key elements of this approach include: → A Special Commissioner who is responsible for nation-wide coordination of anti-extortion and anti-racket activities and initiatives. → A Solidarity Fund operates for the benefit of victims of organised crime, extortion, and usury. → Protective policies and measures such as those for the protection of collaborators and witnesses of justice. → A legal framework which enables civil society organisations to take part in the fight against organised crime and mafia-type activities, particularly as regards victim support. → Social reuse of confiscated assets is especially important because of its symbolic and economic significance. Details: Sophia: Center for the Study of Democracy, 2017. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 18, 2017 at: http://www.csd.bg/artShow.php?id=17762 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Extortion Shelf Number: 147373 |
Author: Drago, Francesco Title: The Political Cost of Being Soft on Crime: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Summary: We provide evidence about voters' response to crime control policies. We exploit a natural experiment arising from the Italian 2006 collective pardon releasing about one third of the prison population. The pardon created idiosyncratic incentives to recidivate across released individuals and municipalities. We show that municipalities where resident pardoned individuals have a higher incentive to recidivate experienced higher recidivism. Moreover, in these municipalities: i) newspapers were more likely to report crime news involving pardoned individuals; ii) voters held worse beliefs on the incumbent governments ability to control crime and iii) with respect to the previous elections, the incumbent national government experienced a worse electoral performance in the April 2008 national elections relative to the opposition coalition. Overall, our findings indicate that voters keep incumbent politicians accountable by conditioning their vote on the observed effects of their policies. Details: Unpublished paper, 2017. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper Series No. 6532: Accessed October 3, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2875317 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Politics and Crime Shelf Number: 147531 |
Author: Maheshri, Vikram Title: Do Security Investments Displace Crime? Theory and Evidence from Italian Banks Summary: Security measures intended to deter crime may unwittingly displace it to neighboring areas. However, evidence of displacement is scarce. We exploit precise information on the timing and locations of all bank robberies in Italy over a 10-year period along with the decisions by bank branches to hire private guards to estimate deterrence and displacement effects of policing. We find that hiring a security guard lowers the likelihood that a bank is robbed by between 31 and 50 percent, though over half of this reduction is immediately displaced to nearby banks that are unguarded. Our findings suggest that policies that restrict the use of guards in certain markets and that require the use of guards in other markets could be socially beneficial. Details: Unpublished paper, 2017. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed October 17, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2992761 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Bank Robberies Shelf Number: 147696 |
Author: Le Moglie, Marco Title: "Mafia Inc.": When Godfathers Become Entrepreneurs Summary: We study the investment of criminal organizations in the legal economy. We focus on Italy, a country historically plagued by a conspicuous presence of mafia-type organizations. By using the exogenous credit contraction imposed by the 2007 financial crisis we highlight how the consequences for newly established enterprises have been less severe in areas with organized crime. Although criminal organizations are largely detrimental for local economic conditions, their economic activity might act as an economic stabilizer in the short-run, especially in a context of weak institutional presence. The investment in the legal economy allows criminal organizations to launder money, make profits, and raise social consensus through the provision of alternative sources of social insurance. Details: Zurich: University of Zurich, Department of Economics, 2017. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper Series; Working Paper No. 251: Accessed November 7, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2958737 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Financial Crimes Shelf Number: 148071 |
Author: Barone, Raffaella Title: Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering and the Business Cycle: Does Secular Stagnation Include Crime? Summary: The aim of the paper is to analyze theoretically and empirically the impact the macroeconomic cycle has on the accumulation of capital by organized crime, using estimates for the global drug market. So far the economic literature has neglected the relationships existing between illegal markets, money laundering, and the business cycle. We propose a dynamic model where the business cycle influences the criminal economy via two different channels. On the one side, illegal markets grow at variable rates, depending on the health of the legal economy. Secondly, a pass-through effect can exist, since the business cycle affects the legal markets which criminal operators use to launder their revenues. Furthermore, we analyze the consequences of a "saturation effect" limiting maximum accumulation of illegal capital. We find that overall illegal capital is affected by the business cycle through a capital multiplier; in addition to this, the dynamics of interest rates in financial markets can influence such multiplier. Details: Milan, Italy: BAFFI CAREFIN Centre, Bocconi University, 2017. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: BAFFI CAREFIN Centre Research Paper No. 2017-47: Accessed November 8, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2896012## Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Markets Shelf Number: 148074 |
Author: Acemoglu, Daron Title: Weak States: Causes and Consequences of the Sicilian Mafia Summary: We document that the spread of the Mafia in Sicily at the end of the 19th century was in part shaped by the rise of socialist Peasant Fasci organizations. In an environment with weak state presence, this socialist threat triggered landholders, estate managers and local politicians to turn to the Mafia to resist and combat peasant demands. We show that the location of the Peasant Fasci is significantly affected by an exceptionally severe drought in 1893, and using information on rainfall, we establish the causal effect of the Peasant Fasci on the location of the Mafia in 1900. We provide extensive evidence that rainfall before and after this critical period has no effect on the spread of the Mafia or various economic and political outcomes. In the second part of the paper, we use the source of variation in the location of the Mafia in 1900 to estimate its medium-term and long-term effects. We find significant and quantitatively large negative impacts of the Mafia on literacy and various public goods in the 1910s and 20s. We also show a sizable impact of the Mafia on political competition, which could be one of the channels via which it affected local economic outcomes. We document negative effects of the Mafia on longer-term outcomes (in the 1960s, 70s and 80s) as well, but these are in general weaker and often only marginally significant. One exception is its persistent and strong impact on political competition. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper No. 24115: Accessed January 17, 2018 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24115 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Economic Development Shelf Number: 0 |
Author: Fenizia, Alessandra Title: Breaking the Ties between the Mafia and the State: Evidence from Italian Municipalities Summary: The impact of organized crime on local economies is inherently hard to measure due to the lack of exogenous variation in criminal activity and data quality. I address these challenges by exploiting the timing of the dismissal of public elected officials in Italian municipalities (when the city council is found to be infiltrated by mafia) as a source of plausibly exogenous variation, and by combining this approach with the use of large administrative datasets. I document that the three external commissioners temporarily cut public investment and public procurement. I find that connected firms experience a sharp reduction in the probability of winning a call for bidders after the takeover. Higher exit rates and the lower number of public procurement contracts awarded only partially explain this sharp drop; overall my findings are consistent with stigma being associated to connected firms and lasting longer than takeover itself. I do not find any evidence that this policy negatively impacts local formal businesses and workers. More specifically, I find suggestive evidence of more churning in the economy, and I do not detect any negative consequences for local workers in terms of employment. Details: Berkeley, CA: UC Berkeley, Department of Economics, 2018. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Preliminary Draft: Accessed February 21, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3105798 Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Economics of Crime Shelf Number: 149203 |
Author: Di Cataldo, Marco Title: Organised Crime, Captured Politicians and the Allocation of Public Resources Summary: What is the impact of organised crime on the allocation of public resources and on tax collection? This paper studies the consequences of collusion between members of criminal organisations and politicians in Italian local governments. In order to capture the presence of organised crime, we exploit the staggered enforcement of a national law allowing for dissolution of a municipal government upon evidence of collusion between elected officials and the mafia. We measure the consequences of this collusion by using newly collected data on public spending, local taxes and elected politicians at the local level. Differences-in-differences estimates reveal that infiltrated local governments not only spend more on average on construction and waste management and less on police enforcement, but also collect fewer fiscal revenues. In addition, we uncover key elements of local elections associated with mafia-government collusion. In particular, Regression Discontinuity estimates show that infiltration is more likely to occur when right-wing parties win local elections. Details: Working Paper, 2017. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 5, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3124949 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Organized Crime Shelf Number: 149310 |
Author: Mastrorocco, Nicola Title: News Media and Crime Perceptions: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Summary: In democracies voters rely on media outlets to learn about politically salient issues. This raises an important question: how strongly can media affect public perceptions? This paper uses a natural experiment - the staggered introduction of the Digital TV signal in Italy - to measure the effect of media persuasion on the perceptions individuals hold. We focus on crime perceptions and, combining channel-specific viewership and content data, we show that the reduced exposure to channels characterized by high levels of crime reporting decreases individual concerns about crime. The effect is driven by individuals aged 50 and over, who turn out to be more exposed to television while using other sources of information less frequently. Finally, we provide some evidence about the effect of the digital introduction on public policies closely related to crime perceptions and on voting behavior. Details: Bonn: IZA Institute of Labor Economics, 2018. 71p. Source: Internet Resource; IZA Discussion Paper no. 11491: Accessed May 9, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3170280 Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime and the Media Shelf Number: 150122 |
Author: Seifert, Stefan Title: An Off er that you Can't Refuse? Agrimafi as and Migrant Labor on Vineyards in Southern Italy Summary: In the 2011 post-Arab Spring migration wave, over 64,000 migrants landed on the southern Italian coast, with many of them potentially working illegally on farms through caporalato, a widespread system of illegal recruitment of underpaid farm labor run by Italian agrimafias. To test this hypothesis, this paper evaluates the causal effects of the 2011 migration wave on reported labor productivity focusing on vineyards in southern Italy. Based on a dynamic panel data model, labor productivity is estimated to increase by about 11% on average for 2011 and 2012. We show that this corresponds to a total of around 10 million unreported work hours, or 21,000 full-time employees, in each year. We interpret this as an increase in employment of illegal workforce due to the migration wave. Magnitude, direction, and statistical significance of the effect are confirmed under various model specifications and using synthetic control and post-lasso approaches. Details: Berlin: German Institute for Economic Research, 2018. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 5, 2018 at: http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.584377.de/dp1735.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Illegal Migrants Shelf Number: 150467 |
Author: Leonardi, Fabrizio Title: Il braccialetto elettronico nelle misure alternative al carcere: l'esperienza italiana ed europea Summary: In the ordinary sense, imprisonment is considered an inevitable element of modern society, as an instrument of segregation for those who are found guilty of particular crimes. However, the place of punishment is no longer necessarily identified with a building - the prison - which fulfills this function. Prisons are afflicted by overcrowding, which determines inhumane and degrading conditions of life for prisoners, and more and more criminal systems provide for the possibility of serving a sentence, or part of it, in the community, albeit with some restrictions. The place of punishment moves, therefore, to invade the private sphere in what has been called "the prison at home". The execution of criminal convictions is not exempt from the continuous evolution of the technologies that characterize our time. New forms of control are made possible to verify the presence of a person in a specific place or to control his movements on the territory. The use of the so-called 'electronic bracelet' for criminal surveillance activities is foreseen in most of the European legal systems since the nineties of the last century. In Italy this control tool was introduced in 2001, with little success and arousing numerous criticisms due to the high running costs. This research, also conducted through a stay in France and Scotland where judges, prison officers, probation workers and prisoners were interviewed, intends to analyze how to use the electronic bracelet in criminal matters in Europe to get useful information on how to improve the use of this tool in Italy, to increase the use of alternative measures and sanctions to prison maintaining adequate levels of security. Details: Rome: Sapienza, Universita di Roma, 2014. 161p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 18, 2018 at: http://padis.uniroma1.it/handle/10805/2626 Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Alternatives to Incarcerations Shelf Number: 150898 |
Author: Sinchetto, Francesco Title: Unaccompanied and Separated Children along Italy's Northern Borders Summary: Unaccompanied and separated foreign minors have been arriving in Italy for several years. The total number of minors intercepted and registered with Italian authorities over the past six years is 62,672. Since 2011 the number of UASC (Unaccompanied And Separated Children) has risen constantly from year to year, up until a slight fall recorded in the first seven months of 2017 (compared with arrivals in the same period of 2016), with the arrival of 12,656 unaccompanied minors, making up 13% of the arriving migrant population over the past year. Among registered UASC, one in four left reception facilities, and became untraceable3. Such a high dropout rate from centres on the part of minors is chiefly due to the desire to go directly to other States in the European Union. This is partly due to the dysfunctions of Italy's reception system and to the time needed to start and complete the procedures for family reunification and the granting of international protection. In view of the "irregular" nature of these people's status, not in the sense of unlawful presence in the country but rather that of straying from a planned course, characterising the state of migrants in transit, who appear to form a sort of "underground people", these migrants, including minors, do not receive any sort of temporary reception or formal support. This category, present en masse in reality, is not legally contemplated or recognised as such. Thus this group is not governed by any particular rules, and does not receive any protection, including services meeting primary needs. In such a setting, there is a clear use, and need, for activities in support of emergency measures adopted by institutions, humanitarian organisations and civil society. Since 2011 Intersos has been operating a night-time reception centre in Rome called A28 for foreign minors in transit. In five years the centre has provided a safe shelter for more than 4,000 unaccompanied foreign minors in transit in Italy. In 2016 the A28 Centre hosted 1,112 unaccompanied minors from Eritrea, one third of all those arriving in Italy in the same year. Working closely with the centre is the Intersos Street Unit service, created in November 2016 in partnership with Unicef, in order to monitor the territory, promote the service and single out the most vulnerable cases. Following on from this initial project, over the past two years Intersos has broadened its action in the sphere of reception and assistance for unaccompanied foreign minors transiting in Italy or dropping out of official reception channels. In March 2017, in collaboration with Unicef, initiatives were also undertaken in Como and Ventimiglia, in light of the increase in migrant flows in the respective border areas, with the consequent intensification of border checks on the part of neighbouring States and a growing number of "rejected" people in Italy, who are forced to face a stalemate situation with very few prospects. The Como and Ventimiglia projects intend to facilitating the take into care of intercepted unaccompanied foreign minors, 1,070 in Como and 1,418 in Ventimiglia, through the providing of information, support and legal aid. Thanks to collaboration with local organisations and reference institutions, ad hoc pathways for UASC are activated, where possible, starting with access to the international protection application procedure, and including admission to secondstage reception facilities. In Ventimiglia furthermore, a mobile clinic has been operational since April 2017, offering basic medical care to persons outside the reception centres. The most relevant cases in terms of the seriousness of violations committed or complexity of individual cases have been taken up in collaboration with the Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione (Association for Legal Studies on Immigration). As regards family reunification procedures, collaborative ties have been forged with the Safe Passage initiative. Thanks to the support of the Open Society Foundation, the conditions of unaccompanied foreign minors have been monitored along Italy's northern borders, from August to October 2017. This report is the result of this monitoring activity. The research was conducted in connection with the above-described actions, making use of the material gathered during these activities, consisting mainly of direct interviews with minors in Rome, Como and Ventimiglia and information procured by constant dialogue with institutions and the actors of civil society operating in the sector. In localities where an Intersos team is not present on a permanent basis, the research was conducted by means of monitoring visits, interviews with migrants, meetings with the authorities responsible for managing the migratory phenomenon, and counting on permanent cooperation with local associations. Details: Rome: Intersos, 2017. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: July 26, 2018 at: https://www.intersos.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/UASC-along-Italys-northern-borders.compressed.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Child Migrants Shelf Number: 150923 |
Author: Argentiero, Amedeo Title: Does Tax Evasion Affect Economic Crime? Summary: This paper examines the impact of tax evasion on criminal activities in Italy. Specifically, we consider three types of crime that are related to economic determinants: property crimes (including robbery, theft and car theft), fraud and usury. We estimate a dynamic panel using annual data from the Italian provinces (NUTS-3) for the 2006-2010 period and show that tax evasion positively affects economic crimes. Notably, the elasticity of tax evasion to fraud is related to the size of the tax burden; in addition, these crimes demonstrate different levels of persistence over time, reflecting different adjustment costs. Finally, we find that property crimes, fraud and usury are not influenced by deterrence or clearing-up variables. Details: Munich, Germany: Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research (CESifo GmbH), 2018. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 8, 2018 at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_6957.html Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Crimes Shelf Number: 151467 |
Author: Slutzky, Pablo Title: Organized Crime and Firms: Evidence from Italy Summary: We exploit staggered municipality-level anti-mafia enforcement actions over the 1995-2015 period to study the effect of organized crime on firms. We find that as organized crime weakens, firm turnover increases through entry of new and exit of existing firms. Firms that do not exit shrink in size and experience reduced operational efficiency. These results are more pronounced among manufacturing firms and firms founded during the heydays of the mafia. Furthermore, the weakening of organized crime leads to increased innovative activity and competition for procurement contracts. Our results suggest that organized crime facilitates collusion among existing firms, which benefits inefficient incumbents but hinders entry of new innovative firms. Details: Michigan: University of Michigan, 2018. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 2, 2018 at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qGGI9bs4PsNthxDA_3xN4ukI_Rh04Ga6/view Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Anti-Mafia Enforcement Shelf Number: 153118 |
Author: Dugato, Marco Title: Prevedere i Furti in Abitazione Summary: Introduction - This research is the product of a path that the Transcrime center has started in 2007 with the goal of develop models for the analysis of the risk and for the prevention of crime. - In 2008, Transcrime presented the first study, promoted by the then Prefect of Naples Alessandro Pansa, on the spatial analysis of crime in San Lorenzo district. This study he showed how the crimes were concentrated in time and space. - In the meantime, technological development has supported the progress of knowledge criminological in the analysis and in the prediction of criminal behavior. - Today this research presents a model predictive for thefts in the home that is the fruit of a collaboration between Transcrime and the Ministry of the Interior, Department of Public Security. - In the following pages we indicate because the study of home burglaries is relevant at European and Italian level. Yes then explains how to use models forecasting can help prevent home burglaries. - Finally, head and yes positively applies a model forecast to the cities of Milan, Rome and Bari, suggesting hypotheses for the reduction of the phenomenon. Details: Milano, Italy: Transcrime, 2015. 15p. Source: Internet Resource (in Italian): Accessed January 16, 2019 at: http://www.transcrime.it/en/pubblicazioni/transcrime-research-in-brief-serie-italia/ Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime Prediction Shelf Number: 154220 |
Author: Daniele, Gianmarco Title: Doing Business Below the Line: Screening, Mafias and Public Funds Summary: In 2013, the Italian government reinforced a screening mechanism to detect mafia-connected firms and ensure that their applications for subsidies over 150,000 euros are unsuccessful. We exploit this discontinuity to test whether (and how many) firms self-select below the threshold to avoid the screening after the law was strengthened. We find a large increase in subsidies just below the threshold and after the approval of the law, suggesting that about 3.8% of firms applying for subsidies reduced rent seeking to avoid police screening. In line with this interpretation, sorting is larger in mafia-affected cities and firms sorting at the 150,000 euros threshold display typical features of criminal firms. These findings shed light on (i) the extent to which mafia-connected firms misappropriate public funds; (ii) their strategic behavior in avoiding anti-corruption policies; (iii) the effectiveness of the new law at screening mafia-related firms out of the application process; (iv) the leverages policymakers can use to identify crime displacement. Details: Milan: Bocconi University; Baffi Carefin Centre, 2018. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: BAFFI CAREFIN Centre Research Paper No. 2018-98: Accessed February 7, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3299552 Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime Displacement Shelf Number: 154507 |
Author: Carrieri, Vincenzo Title: Light Cannabis and Organized Crime - Evidence from (Unintended) Liberalization in Italy Summary: The effect of marijuana liberalization on crime is object of a large interest by social scientists and policy-makers. However, due to the scarcity of relevant data, the displacement effect of liberalization on the supply of illegal drugs remained substantially unexplored. This paper exploits the unintended liberalization of cannabis light (C-light, i.e. with low THC) occurred in Italy in December 2016 by means of a legislative gap, to assess its effect in a quasi-experimental setting. Although the liberalization interested all the Italian territory, the intensity of liberalization in the short-run varied according to the pre-liberalization market configuration of grow-shops, i.e. shops selling industrial canapa-related products that have been able to first place the canapa flowers (C-light) on the new market. We exploit this variation in a Differences-in-Differences design using a unique dataset on monthly confiscations of drugs at province level (NUTS-3 level) over the period 2016-2018 matched with data on the geographical location of shops and socio-demographic variables. We find that the legalization of C-light led to a reduction of 12% of confiscation of marijuana per each pre-existing grow-shop and a significant reduction of other canapa-derived drugs (plants of cannabis and hashish). Back-to-envelope calculations suggest that forgone revenues for criminal organizations amount to at least 160-200 million Euros per year. These results support the argument that, even in a short period of time and with an imperfect substitute, the organized crime's supply of illegal drugs is displaced by the entry of official and legal retailers. Details: Essen, Germany: RWI - Leibniz-Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung, 2018. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Ruhr Economic Papers #774: Accessed February 22, 2019 at: http://www.rwi-essen.de/media/content/pages/publikationen/ruhr-economic-papers/rep_18_774.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Cannabis Shelf Number: 154730 |
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Title: Trade in Counterfeit Goods and the Italian Economy: Protecting Italy's Intellectual Property Summary: The Italian economy is innovative and rich in intellectual property (IP), with nearly every industry either producing or using IP. Italian IP-intensive industries are very well integrated in the global economy, through active participation in global value chains. At the same time, the threats of counterfeiting and piracy are growing - and Italy is vulnerable. This report measures the direct, economic effects of counterfeiting on Italian consumers, the Italian retail and manufacturing industry, and the Italian governments. It examines both the impact that the imports of fake products to Italy has on these three groups and the impact on the Italian intellectual property rights holders of the global trade in fake products that infringe their IP rights. Details: Paris: OECD Publishing, 2018. 109p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2019 at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264302426-en.pdf?expires=1553955708&id=id&accname=oid006203&checksum=13E7D59C3017EDEC53718DB8861586C8 Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Counterfeit Goods Shelf Number: 155236 |
Author: Dalla Pellegrina, Lucia Title: Detecting the Fifty Shades of Grey: Local Crime, Suspicious Transaction Reporting and Anti-Money Laundering Regulation Summary: This paper investigates the efficiency of the suspicious transaction reporting (STR) activity to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as a means to deter money laundering. A baseline theoretical model is used as a framework to guide the empirical analysis of the relationship between STR and the vulnerability of Italian provinces to money laundering in the 2008-2013 period. Instrumental variables are used to limit the problems stemming from the endogenous nature of the number of reports to the FIU with respect to vulnerability. Results provide a positive assessment of the risk-based mechanism of reporting suspicious operations to the FIU. Details: Milan: Universita Bocconi, 2018. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: BAFFI CAREFIN Centre Research Paper No. 2018-93: Accessed April 12, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3280307 Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Financial Crimes Shelf Number: 155370 |
Author: Dalla Pellegrina, Lucia Title: Vulnerability to Money Laundering and Crime Deterrence: Evidence from Italy Summary: This paper examines the economy's vulnerability to money laundering in a given region. Assuming that criminals are rational investors who take into account risks and returns of both legal and illegal investments, we define vulnerability as a function of well-identified drivers. Proxies of these variables are used to empirically investigate the relationship between the institutional/economic characteristics of Italian provinces and their vulnerability to money laundering in the 2008-2013 period. We focus on the impact of the reporting of suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit, by using instrumental variables to address endogeneity in the relationship between the number of reports made and our measure of vulnerability. Results highlight positive effects of the institutional policies adopted to fight money laundering, especially as far as the reporting of suspicious transactions is concerned. Further dimensions of local vulnerability are outlined: time-invariant heterogeneity across provinces, showing that certain areas are more systematically vulnerable because of persistent local features that cannot be individually identified; and idiosyncratic vulnerability, which pinpoints the fact that some provinces have been periodically subject to abnormally intense money-laundering activity. Details: Milan: Universita Bocconi, 2017. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: BAFFI CAREFIN Centre Research Paper No. 2017-66: Accessed April 12, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3090994 Year: 2017 Country: Italy Keywords: Crime Deterrence Shelf Number: 155373 |
Author: Battaglini, Marco Title: Tax Professionals: Tax-Evasion facilitators or Information Hubs? Summary: To study the role of tax professionals, we merge tax records of 2.5 million taxpayers in Italy with the respective audit files from the tax revenue agency. Our data covers the entire population of sole proprietorship taxpayers in seven regions, followed over seven fiscal years. We first document that tax evasion is systematically correlated with the average evasion of other customers of the same tax professional. We then exploit the unique structure of our dataset to study the channels through which these social spillover effects are generated. Guided by an equilibrium model of tax compliance with tax professionals and auditing, we highlight two mechanisms that may be behind this phenomenon: self-selection of taxpayers who sort themselves into professionals of heterogeneous tolerance for tax evasion; and informational externalities generated by the tax professional activities. We provide evidence supporting the simultaneous presence of both mechanisms. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper 25745: Accessed April 15, 2019 at: https://www.nber.org/papers/w25745.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Italy Keywords: Economic Crimes Shelf Number: 155421 |
Author: Paoli, Letizia Title: The Supply of Doping Products and the Potential of Criminal Law Enforcement in Anti-Doping: An Examination of Italy's Experience Summary: Motivation and Aims of the Study The present study draws its main motivation from the growing dissatisfaction of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and numerous international and national policy-makers with the traditional anti-doping approach. This has developed since the 1960s through the interaction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), international sports federations, and national governments, and since 2001, WADA, "focus[ing] squarely on the athlete[s]" (WADA, 2010b) and their testing. The 2012 London Olympics again demonstrated the limits of athletes' testing: despite the 6,000 tests conducted, only two athletes tested positive during the Olympics, whereas seven others were "caught" in the preceding two weeks, which also belong to the official testing period for the games (Associated Press, 2012; Niggli, 2013, personal communication). Today, there is a growing consensus among national and international policy-makers and many scholars (e.g., Bannenberg and Rssner, 2006; Rssner, 2011; Howman, 2011; Houlihan and Garca, 2012; see also AFP, 2011) that a broader approach is needed, including the use of criminal law instruments and, specifically, the repression of "trafficking." According to the WADA (2010), for example, "it is imperative that additional strategies be combined with testing, research and education to ensure an efficient and effective anti-doping fight." Testing alone cannot tackle five of the eight core violations listed in the WADA Anti-Doping Code, which constitutes the cornerstone of the current international drug control regime and is implemented by national governments through the ratification of the 2005 UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport. In this study, we have examined Italy's anti-doping criminal law experience with the two main aims: 1) analyzing the production and distribution (collectively referred to as trade or supply) of doping products-an expression that includes both doping substances and methods and 2) understanding how anti-doping criminal provisions and their enforcement can contribute to improve the fight against doping within and outside the sports world. Since the late 1990s, in fact, Italy has played a pioneering role in the criminal law control of doping, and numerous investigations have shed light in Italy on different facets of the problem of doping and specifically of the supply of doping products. By implementing a multi-method research design (see below), we have mapped the distribution system of doping products from producers to final users in Italy and built a typology of suppliers, identifying their motivations, modus operandi and mutual relationships and assessing their revenues and profits. On the basis of the same and other secondary sources, we have also evaluated the legislative bases, actors and outcomes of Italys anti-doping criminal law action, identifying a series of challenges that this action faces. To provide necessary context for assessing the supply of doping products, we have also estimated the size and financial dimensions of the Italian market for doping products - to our knowledge our study constitutes the first attempt to estimate these aspects of a national market for doping products. Details: s.l.: World Anti-Doping Agency, 2013. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 17, 2019 at: https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/2013-Paoli-Donati-Report-Executive-Summary-EN.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Italy Keywords: Athletes Shelf Number: 155442 |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Rehabilitation and Recidivism: Evidence from an Open Prison Summary: We use quasi-random variation in the fraction of time served in the Italian "open prison of Bollate to estimate the effect of rehabilitation efforts on recidivism. We deal with the endogeneity of rehabilitation assignments by focussing on those sources of variability in the length of exposure to rehabilitation efforts that are plausibly unrelated to recidivism. Our most stringent test restricts the analysis to inmates who, due to overcrowding in nearby prisons, are displaced to Bollate controlling for observed and unobserved measures of potential selection. Spending one more year at the rehabilitating prison (and one less year at an ordinary one) reduces recidivism by between 10 and 15 percentage points (from a mean recidivism of about 40 percent). For the group of displaced inmates, which is shown to be negatively selected, the effects of rehabilitation efforts on recidivism are larger. While we find evidence that over time Bollate inmates become more likely to work outside the prison, more than a single mechanism seem to underly these effects. Details: Unpublished paper, 2014. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 25, 2019 at: http://www.antoniocasella.eu/nume/Mastrobuoni_Terlizzese_bollate_oct14.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Open Prisons Shelf Number: 155525 |
Author: Doctors Without Borders Title: Harmful Borders: An analysis of the daily struggle of migrants as they attempt to leave Ventimiglia for northern Europe Summary: Since 2015, the Italian town of Ventimiglia, on the border with France, has been one of the major transit points for migrants attempting to leave Italy and reach a final destination in northern Europe. Migrants in transit often experience harsh and extreme living conditions, find themselves exposed to physical abuse and vulnerabilities, and are routinely victims of deprivation and pushbacks at the Italian border. Shortcomings in protection and the health hazards experienced by these groups may result in acute and longer-term illness, further aggravated by their poor access to health services. To respond to the considerable needs of this group of people, MSF teams worked in border areas of Italy, including Ventimiglia, Como and Gorizia. Here we present the results of a quantitative analysis among migrants in transit carried out by MSF at two sites in Ventimiglia, documenting the types of violence experienced both during the journey and during pushbacks from the Italian border, and assessing people's access to health services. Details: Rome: Author, 2018. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed April 26, 2019 at: https://www.msf.fr/sites/default/files/harmful_borders_190218.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Human Rights Abuses Shelf Number: 155566 |
Author: Giacalone, Giovanni Title: From Criminals to Terrorists and Back? Quarterly Report: Italy Summary: The fourth quarterly report of the From Criminals to Terrorists and Back? project is focused on the case of Italy. Authors, Giovanni Giacalone and Nicolo Spagna preliminarily reveal that only 2 out of the 14 examined cases have a proven criminal past, with most profiles yet to be examined. Interestingly, a clear-cut division surfaces: propagandist figures and action figures. The first includes all individuals involved in the dissemination of extremist material for propaganda and indoctrination. The second category includes all individuals with the will to act, either by perpetrating terrorist attacks, joining jihad abroad, or facilitating volunteers for warzones on top of performing propagandistic actions. "So far, we have not identified a pronounced crime-terror nexus link in Italy. However, 2015 saw the quick conversion and radicalisation of an ethnically Italian family, performing this process in connection with another, Albanian family. Such cases clearly emphasize the importance of the family/clan connection, also in relation to the links with jihadi/criminal organisations in Albania, the country of origin of the latter family." Details: Bratislava, Slovak Republic: GLOBSEC Policy Institute, 2018. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2019 at: https://www.globsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/From-Criminals-to-Terrorists-and-Back-Quarterly-Report-2018-Italy.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Italy Keywords: Counter-Terrorism Shelf Number: 155922 |
Author: Varrella, Andrea Title: ECPAT Country Overview: Italy Summary: A Parliamentary Republic and one of the world's biggest economies, Italy is home to over 60 million inhabitants, of whom 9,761,000 are children. The country has been affected in recent years by economic recession and increases in migration, which has aggravated the vulnerability to sexual exploitation of certain groups of children, in particular unaccompanied migrant minors. Minority children are also at greater risk of sexual exploitation due to ongoing discrimination and marginalisation in the country. The age of consent for both boys and girls, set at 14, is one of the lowest in Europe and causes further risk to children of sexual exploitation. Exploitation of children in prostitution is a known issue. Links to trafficking, particularly in the South of Italy, have been clearly established. Poverty remains a major risk factor for sexual exploitation of children (SEC), but cases (outlined in this report) demonstrate that anyone can be affected, irrespective of their background. Reportedly, self-generated live-streaming of sexually explicit content is on the rise among Italian youth, which has been identified as a way perpetrators access or convince children to create child sexual abuse material. Italy is a destination, transit and source country for children subjected to trafficking for sexual purposes, with the majority of identified victims coming from Nigeria, China and Eastern Europe. No clear estimates are available regarding the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism, although Italy is traditionally considered as a country of origin for offenders (male and female). At a Glance There are no official studies on child, early and forced marriage in Italy, but estimates have evaluated the rate of child marriages (often celebrated only at community level rather than in law) in the shanty towns of Rome at 77% (including both boys and girls). Italy has ratified all the major international conventions and is part of various European and global initiatives. The 2013 ratification of the Lanzarote Convention has brought improvements to Italian legislation, including a comprehensive definition of 'child sexual abuse material' and the criminalisation of grooming of children under 16 years of age. Yet this has left contradictions in the law given the legal age of consent remains 14. Italy has some national policies on specific manifestations of SEC, but the overall plan on sexual exploitation and abuse of children is no longer in force and has not been updated. Moreover, there is little or no information regarding the implementation of these plans in previous years, so it remains hard to assess the effectiveness of policies and legislation. Specialised law enforcement agencies and investigative police units deal with SEC and child victims can claim compensation through three different channels (civil courts, criminal courts and state-managed compensation funds). There are no specific mechanisms to ensure children participation in SEC-related policies and plans. Details: Bangkok: ECPAT International, 2019. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2019 at: https://www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ECO_Italy_FINAL_6February2019.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Italy Keywords: Child Abuse and Neglect Shelf Number: 155925 |
Author: Scognamiglio, Annalisa Title: When the Mafia Comes to Town Summary: This paper investigates the effect of diffusion of organized crime on local economies by examining a legal institution that operated in Italy between 1956 and 1988. The law allowed Public Authorities to force mafiosos to resettle to another town. Using variation in the number of resettled mafia members across destination provinces in a differences-in-differences setting, I find no conclusive evidence on the effect of the policy on crime or homicides, while there is a very robust positive impact on employment in the construction sector. Results are consistent with mafia exploiting these new locations mainly for money laundering. Details: Naples, Italy: Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 23, 2019 at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/sef/csefwp/404.html Year: 2015 Country: Italy Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 156028 |
Author: Fornasari, Gabriele Title: Giustizia Riparativa: Responsabilita, Partecipazione, Riparazione (Restorative Justice: Responsibility, Participation, Repair) Summary: This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference held in Trento, at the Faculty of Law, 20-21 January 2017, and the result of the collaboration that has long linked the Faculty itself and the Region of Trentino-Alto Adige /Sudtirol: this is certainly the case of a positive relationship, which in this way reconfirms itself as a harbinger of tangible acquisitions destined to leave a trace, over time, of the existence of a common horizon of action. The fact that this horizon really exists, both scientifically, both on the practical side, it is further testified, in itself, by the theme that the contributions published here deal with all its complex declinations. In fact, restorative justice is at the center of attention only of scholars, but also of all institutional actors, who, directly or indirectly, perform functions capable of interacting with the very delicate matter of the execution of the sentence. In part, in fact, it is a matter of giving substance and effectiveness to what provided for by art. 27, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, especially where it is established that penalties "must tend to the rehabilitation of the condemned". It can be said that we are faced with a goal that has become, for the legislator as for the judiciary, for the penitentiary administration and for legal doctrine, a real challenge; a puzzle in some way, since, in recent years, and more and more often, the public and political debate in particular has always tried to endorse a sort of splitting, to the point of making them almost irreconcilable, between the need for "certainty of punishment" and the need for "recovery" of the person found guilty and therefore punished. It is true that the two dimensions must necessarily communicate and that, therefore, reasoning set of restorative justice and possible models (also on the plane comparative) can provide useful solicitations to rationalize a speech which, otherwise, risks spreading very dangerous convictions in operators as in citizenship. But one cannot even hide that, seen in the frame of a broader horizon, the perspective of restorative justice goes even beyond the needs now briefly recalled and postulates a more intense and deeper revision of the most widespread conceptions of punishment; at the very least, it requires a review of the conceptions, typical of legal modernity, which, emphasizing the guaranteeing instance of the absolute neutralization of the time of execution of the sanction, prevented the formation of a potentially profitable communication channel between the convicted and the victim. There are those who do not see, on the other hand, that a real recovery of the former - with its substantial re-acceptance into the ranks of the social community of reference - has a greater chance of being fulfilled when it is also the latter that recognizes and bears witness to the path to reconciliation. And there are those who do not see, from this specific point of view, that it is more than ever beneficial to broaden the spectrum of principles and criteria that must "govern" the execution of the sentence to the operation of the principles and criteria that govern the public administration under the art. 97 of the constitution: impartiality and good performance can only be the first references to recover objectivity and efficiency in a context that contemplates the exercise continuative of very incisive public powers and that one would like, by definition, to participate if not shared. It remains, therefore, only to hope that the ideas emerging from the works published here will constitute a step in a research path and even greater commitment. Certainly the Trentino Faculty can only thank my colleagues Prof. Gabriele Fornasari and Dr. Elena Mattevi for have been able to cultivate this research trail with skill and passion for always having distinguished themselves as precious interlocutors of the relationship of cooperation with the Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol Region; a synergy that the Faculty considers valuable and that will surely continue to be mutually beneficial. Details: Trento, Italy: Universita Degli Studi di Trento, 2019. 268p. Source: Internet Resource (in Italian): Accessed June 17, 2019 at: https://iris.unitn.it/retrieve/handle/11572/234755/260405/COLLANA%20QUADERNI%20VOLUME%2040.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Italy Keywords: Italy Shelf Number: 156467 |
Author: Germani, Anna Rita Title: Illegal Trafficking and Unsustainable Waste Management in Italy: Evidence at Regional Level Summary: The presence of organized crime strongly affects sustainable waste management in Italy. In particular, illegal trafficking of waste has become one of the fastest growing areas of crime and one of the most lucrative industries among organized criminal activities, which has now infiltrated both the Italian urban and hazardous waste management cycle. In this study, we aim to investigate the determinants of the illegal trafficking of waste using waste, economic, and enforcement data in a panel analysis over the period 2002-2013. The topic is particularly relevant, given the high heterogeneity across Italian regions which also relates, and eventually leads, to different environmental performances. Our main findings reveal that, in most Italian regions, enforcement activities do not exert a significant deterrence on criminal behaviors; a negative relationship between enforcement and illegal trafficking of waste can be identified only for very high levels of enforcement efforts. Moreover, we find that the major determinants influencing the rate of illegal trafficking of waste differ between northern-central and southern regions, confirming the existence of a regional dualism. In particular, while in the northern-central area the crime rate is positively related to the level of education and negatively to the adoption of environmentally sound policies, in southern regions the organized activities for illegal trafficking are negatively related to the degree of education attainment and positively to the endowment of waste management plants. Details: Rome: Italian Society of Law and Economics Conference, 2014. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 19, 2019 at: http://www.siecon.org/online/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Germani.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy Keywords: Environmental Crime Shelf Number: 156502 |