Italy

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Italy. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Awesome things happen when people come together

by Lynette Parker Recently, I met with representatives from Prison Fellowship Italy (PF Italy) visiting the Washington, DC area. In early 2010, a colleague and I had visited Italy to train members of the new organisation in the Sycamore Tree Project® so I was really looking forward to hearing about their experiences and the lessons learned. I wasn’t prepared for the awe inspiring stories that they told. The Sycamore Tree Project® is an in-prison restorative justice programme bringing together unrelated victims and prisoners for a series of six to eight sessions. Through the sessions, participants explore the impact of crime, taking responsibility, confession, repentance, making amends, forgiveness and reconciliation. PF Italy worked quickly to implement this programme in Italian prisons but faced a few obstacles. In the end, the prison administration allowed them to start but with the proviso that the first group consist of prisoners who were mafia members convicted of committing murder and survivors of victims of such mafia activity. I remember receiving that news and thinking, “That’s not where I would want to start.”

Balahur, Doina and Brutto, Sabrina and Padovani, Alessandro and Balahur, Doina. Probation and Restorative Justice in Romania and Italy.

This book reviews recent trends in European-style juvenile justice systems and explores diversionary and alternative dispute resolution strategies. The lines of enquiries developed within this book argue for the possibility and desirability of special treatment for children in the juvenile justice system. Part I, "Probation and Restorative Justice in Romania," maps the competing trends and models of juvenile justice while attempting to identify where Romanian juvenile justices stands among them. The content of Part I includes: Competing Models of Juvenile Justice: Social-Legal Perspectives and Applied Research of Social Work; Juvenile Offenders Who Are Not Criminally Responsible: The Potential of Restorative Justice; and, Romanian Probation System between Past and Future. Part II,"Probation and Restorative Justice in Italy," examines the complex problems of juvenile delinquency in Italy. The content of Part II includes: Restorative Justice: An International and Critical Overview; Juvenile Delinquency: The Italian Context; The Italian Juvenile Justice System: An Introduction; and, Probation and Educational Measures for Juveniles in Italy. Part III, "Italian and Norwegian Restorative Justice Experiences," offers a comparative analysis of restorative justice in Italy and Norway within the frame of the European project, COST A21. The content of Part III includes: Looking into the Question of Marginalization of Juveniles by Comparing Italian and Norwegian Restorative Justice Experiences. (Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov).

Merzagora Betsos, Isabella and Maffei, Stefano. "Crime and Criminal Policy in Italy: Tradition and Modernity in a Troubled Country"

This paper investigates the development of criminology research in Italy and places it in the context of broader considerations of the country’s policies on crime and criminal justice. An overview of Italian research on crime and criminology reveals the versatility of Italian literature and jurisprudence; it also indicates that ‘new’ forms of criminality (such as white-collar crimes, sexual offences and the crimes of immigrants) are being discussed alongside the more traditional topics of murder, crimes against property and organized crime. Furthermore, this survey attempts to clarify why, in Italy, the level of public confidence in the criminal justice system is so low, despite the numerous recent reforms and the official crime rates, according to which Italy is within the European norm for most categories of offences.

de Vanna, Ilaria. School Mediation in the Province of Bari.

Numerous scientific studies have shown the quality of learning is tightly correlated to the communicative and relational quality of the scholar-familiar context. Investigations conducted by regional Institutes, in cooperation with C.R.I.S.I. and other associations in the province of Bari, have underlined school is also one of the places in which different forms of violence develop and where divergent and antagonistic interests often provoke, in particular among boys, misunderstandings and tensions, resulting in different forms of uneasiness and conflict. Insofar the project aims to prevent violence inside the school borders. The presentation is about a C.R.I.S.I project in a middle school in Bari. (author's abstract)

Baldry, Anna C and Scali, Melania and Volpini, Laura and Scali, Melania. "Mediation in the Italian juvenile justice system: A mediation service project."

The authors of this article survey the status and function of mediation in the Italian juvenile justice system – at the time of writing, mediation was not available in the adult system in Italian. Restorative justice principles were introduced into the Italian juvenile justice system in 1988 in accord with United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice. Topics discussed include the following: the justice system perspective on the nature of juvenile offending; the administration of mediation within the system; and the development of a new, independent mediation service by a group of experts at the University of Rome.

Ministry of Justice. "Mediation and restorative justice in the Italian criminal justice system."

This paper presents the status of mediation in the Italian criminal justice system. The first part of the paper surveys penal mediation with respect to juveniles, including guidelines and objectives for penal mediation in the juvenile sector. Theoretical approaches to mediation are described, as is the legal framework. Actual experiences regarding the use of penal mediation are also discussed. The second part of the paper deals with the extension of criminal mediation to ordinary justice (i.e., cases involving adult offenders). Topics covered in this section are the following: the legal framework; the current trend in the protection of victims; mediation and reparation in the experience of law-enforcement officers; and mediation and reparation with respect to the Justice of the Peace.

. Juvenile criminal mediation in Italy: Current and future perspectives.

The history of juvenile criminal mediation in Italy's judicial system is especially fragmented and complex. Instead of retracing this history as a chronicle, an overview of its main features is provided below, because it accounts for the special nature of the Italian model and must be taken into account when envisaging future developments and new perspectives -- not only in respect of juvenile mediation, but regarding restorative justice in general in Italy. (excerpt)

Ghetti, Simona and Mestitz, Anna. What do prosecutors and judges think about victim-offender mediation with juvenile offenders? (What do Italian judges and prosecutors think about victim-offender mediation?)

In Italy VOM has been experimented mainly within the juvenile justice system since the early 90s. Juvenile magistrates (public prosecutors and judges) may dispose for VOM as a part of the criminal proceeding. In our previous research (Mestitz & Ghetti, 2002) we documented that juvenile magistrates were directly involved in the promotion and creation of 6 of the 9 Mediation centres existing in Italy at the time of the research. Considering that juvenile prosecutors and judges are the only professionals who can dispose for mediation, and they seem to have a central role in ensuring the very existence of VOM in Italy, we may expect that in those jurisdictions in which VOM centres exist, mediation is attempted in a sizeable percentage of cases. Instead, when we examined the proportion of juvenile crimes reported to the authorities in the jurisdiction in which VOM centre is available, we found that mediation is attempted in a very small percentage of cases (e.g., 8% in 2000). Thus, we wondered whether despite the initial enthusiasm and/or support, there is now some attitudinal resistance to rely on mediation. (excerpt)

Ministero della Giustizia. La Mediazione penale e la giustizia riparativa

La giustizia riparativa può essere definita come un modello di giustizia che coinvolge la vittima, il reo e la comunità nella ricerca di soluzioni agli effetti del conflitto generato dal fatto delittuoso, allo scopo di promuovere lariparazione del danno, la riconciliazione tra le parti e il rafforzamento del senso di sicurezza collettivo. La sfida che la giustizia riparativa lancia, alle soglie del XXI secolo, è quella di cercare di superare la logica del castigo muovendo da una lettura relazionale del fenomeno criminoso, inteso primariamente come un conflitto che provoca la rottura di aspettative sociali simbolicamente condivise. Il reato non dovrebbe più essere considerato soltanto un illecito commesso contro la società, o come un comportamento che incrina l'ordine costituito - e che richiede una pena da espiare -, bensì come una condotta intrinsecamente dannosa e offensiva, che può provocare alle vittime privazioni, sofferenze, dolore e persino la morte, e che richiede, da parte del reo, principalmente l'attivazione di forme di riparazione del danno provocato. (estratto) (excerpt)

Mestitz, Anna and Ghetti, Simona. Juvenile magistrates and victim-offender mediation centres: the communication system

In Italy victim-offender mediation (VOM) centres were established for the first time in the early 90s within the juvenile criminal justice system. Such system is functionally connected with, and somewhat dependent on, a complex network of subjects and institutions (Mestitz, 2000), such as the national and local social services, the judicial police for juveniles, voluntary work associations, and rehabilitation communities, where the juvenile offenders may be placed for the execution of the sentence (probation, rehabilitation, etc.). In 2001-2002 the first survey on the characteristics and functioning of VOM centres was carried out (see Mestitz, 2002 for a synthesis of preliminary findings emphasising the limited use of VOM in Italy). The present contribution is based on the mentioned survey dataset, and is aimed at providing some information about: 1) the role of juvenile magistrates (like in France, the term “magistratesâ€? refers to both judges and public prosecutors) for the creation and promotion of VOM in Italy, and 2) the current communication between judicial authorities and VOM centres. (excerpt)