Widening the Antimafia Net. Mafia Behaviour, Cultural Transmission and Children Protection in Calabrian mafia families

This article explores proceedings by the Youth Tribunal of Reggio Calabria, Southern Italy, aimed at the protection of children in families where one or both parents are investigated for mafia offences. The findings show that preventing the transmission of mafia (‘ndrangheta) culture in the local context has become an essential part of child protection measures. This article will argue that when discussing child protection in criminal families, it is necessary (a) to question the nature of the bonds of these families with the socio-cultural context, and (b) to concretely assess the way this context wishes to affect the family’s criminality

A qualitative reading of the ecological (dis)organisation of criminal associations. The case of the ?Famiglia Basilischi? in Italy

This paper combines the theoretical foundations of organisational ecology - one of the most important approaches in economic sociology - with classic criminological theories to interpret the birth, evolution and death of criminal associations. This mixed approach will support the interpretation of organised crime groups as phenomena strictly linked to the environment as well as to other competitors in criminal markets. This paper analyses the birth, evolution and death of a criminal association in Basilicata, Southern Italy, known as the ?Famiglia Basilischi?. The case is exemplary of how ecological conditions affect the success or failure of a newly formed criminal association. These conditions can therefore be indicators to interpret organised criminal activities in similar environments

Constructing meaning about the delinquency of young girls in public-housing neighbourhoods

UID/SOC/04647/2013 SFRH/BPD/116119/2016Rooted in the theoretical approaches of social ecology and in childhood studies, the Ph.D. research project on which this paper is based aimed to achieve a better understanding of children’s socialization processes in multi-problematic spaces, particularly concerning their involvement in violence and delinquency. A case study based on ethnographic research and child-centred methods was carried out in six public-housing neighbourhoods in Portugal, which were chosen because they had relatively high levels of social deprivation, violence and crime. The specificity of the social group under study—children aged from 6 to 12 years old—and their living conditions, led us to extend the data collected by trying to learn, from the girls, the reasoning and the meanings they assign to their own actions in daily social practices. The intention was to study the features of girls’ socialization in the field through their own accounts of their lives and to examine their perspectives on offending behaviours. The genderized process of social learning in delinquency identified in the girls’ conversation is an important variable, as familial and social experiences tend to facilitate their entry into delinquency. The transmission of delinquent values takes place essentially within the female family circle or via female peers, rather than from the influence of male individuals.authorsversionpublishe

Stigmatisation Processes. The Power of Classifications

This chapter will show a systematic review of the literature about radicalisation. The most of scientific literature and of experimented practices are security-oriented, where psychological contribution only appears as a support in the de-radicalisation processes or as a search for indicators able to detect signs for future deviance and radicalisation. The innovation of the present contribution, which tries to fill this gap, is its psychosocial perspective, focusing on social inclusion and on a proactive approach, and exploring topics concerning group processes and dynamics, social identities and theories on relative deprivation. Authors coming both from European and other international contexts are analysed and discussed, paying particular attention the suggestions of the theoretical perspectives for implementing good practices. The contribution of the Council of Europe in promoting competences for democratic culture has been underlined. The most promising indications have been the reference framework of the PROVA project

New Foundations: Pseudo-pacification and special liberty as potential cornerstones of a multi-level theory of homicide and serial murder

Over the past 30 years the industrialized West has witnessed a move towards space, heterogeneity and subjectivity in the criminological study of violence and homicide. Although large-scale quantitative studies of the temporal and spatial distribution of homicide continue to provide a broad empirical context, aetiological explanations tend to be based on analyses of the heterogeneous psychological interactions and experiences of individual subjects at the micro-level. However, mid-range studies of the temporal and spatial distribution of perpetrators and victims of homicide between unrelated adults have provided a useful link between the micro- and macro-levels. Focusing primarily on British homicide and serial murder, this article attempts to strengthen this link by combining contemporary micro-analyses of the subjective motives of perpetrators with mid-range analyses of space, which can therefore be seen as part of the structural tradition of theorizing about homicide and serial murder. Placing these analyses in a broad underlying context constituted by major historical shifts in political economy and the cultural forms of ‘pseudo-pacification’ and ‘special liberty’ will lay the initial cornerstones for an integrated multi-level theory. © The Author(s) 2014