This article suggests a research approach aimed at the empirical investigation of how the require... more This article suggests a research approach aimed at the empirical investigation of how the requirements of social defence can be reciprocally compatible with those of the protection of minors in juvenile criminal proceedings or, vice-versa, feature aspects of incompatibility. Based on a research project of 35 trials and a series of interviews of privileged witnesses conducted at the Catania Juvenile Court, the article sets out to run an empirical check on whether or not the specific autonomy attributed to juvenile criminal proceedings translates into a procedural structure capable of handing down decisions that are legitimate in a sociological sense. The research attempts to identify a decision-making structure and roles necessarily related to the conditions of functionality to be found empirically in this kind of proceedings usable for indicating the proceedings’ legal nature as a specific, autonomous decision-making process.
The paper provides an analysis of perception and representation that the children have about publ... more The paper provides an analysis of perception and representation that the children have about public spaces of Catania, in particular the feelings of insecurity and autonomy that arise in their daily lives. In particular, it was pointed out the testing of a mixed methodology to study the complex production and demonstration needs of this specific portion of the population.
SocietàMutamentoPolitica: Rivista Italiana di Sociologia, 2020
The paper reflects on the potential of some restorative justice tools read as inclusion practices... more The paper reflects on the potential of some restorative justice tools read as inclusion practices in the juvenile criminal sphere and extendable to the field of immigrant minors. The scenario involving both types of minors is the context of economic, social and family fragility on which the challenge of inclusion is played – most often missed, in the first case, and, perhaps, future, in the second. The context of analysis is that of a path of mediation experienced in the Brazilian reality. Brazil is a territory with high social stratification that recalls central themes of social and intercultural coexistence. It provides an example of how mediation logic and practices can rise to category and interpretative tools to understand complex and contradictory dynamics of integration and at the same time marginalization and exclusion, which in contemporary times characterize, starting from Simmel's words, relationships with "the other", "the stranger", the "for...
The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to under... more The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to understand child vulnerability and agency. The research approach focuses on criminal judgements pronounced in Italian courts and assesses how institutional interpretations support perceptions of vulnerability or agency that are often promoted or defined by criminal law perspectives. The attempt is to investigate human trafficking both as a multifaceted phenomenon and as a process to link together the functioning of elements of the human trafficking system that as a prism assumes different shapes in a growing complexity.
15.30 | I SESSION –HUMANITARIAN COMMUNICATION: ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS INTRODUCTION AND CHA... more 15.30 | I SESSION –HUMANITARIAN COMMUNICATION: ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS INTRODUCTION AND CHAIR: Paola Parmiggiani (University of Bologna) KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Suzanne Franks, City University of London, UK Missing out on the politics Media coverage of humanitarian crises. 16.30 | DISCUSSANTS: Fausto Colombo, Cattolica University of Milano Pierlugi Musarò, University of Bologna 17.00 | QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2017
The complex relationship between children online and digital technologies is the starting point o... more The complex relationship between children online and digital technologies is the starting point of this reflection of a growing process of multidisciplinary theoretical attention to building children’s biographies. On the one hand, the concepts of “risk and childhood safety” have become increasingly central in institutional discourses. The content of this attention seems, however, to assume more the form of adults’ fears, dealing with an endless struggle for a utopian safety for their children, than the reality of what really can be a “risk” for children online. On the other hand, the current changes in the representations of childhood are increasingly oriented to a vision of the child as the subject of its own history and therefore more active and participatory. This makes it difficult to manage the distinction between adults and children and is problematic for the use of traditional parenting styles. Starting from a reflection on the main theoretical perspectives that have been co...
Gli autori presentano i risultati di una ricerca empirica, che riflettono la tendenza generale de... more Gli autori presentano i risultati di una ricerca empirica, che riflettono la tendenza generale del diritto flessibile (liquido) a stimolare l’accentuarsi della responsabilita/ discrezionalita nei processi decisionali. I risultati ottenuti evidenziano che le corti di merito tendono ad ancorarsi a una piu limitata "giurisprudenza locale" che abbia superato il vaglio, in punto di diritto, del giudice di legittimita; questo fatto implica che gli operatori giuridici, nell’elaborare le conoscenze sui fenomeni sociali - tratto fondamentale "del fare diritto" - riconducono il processo di de-formalizzazione, che porta il ragionamento sul piano della dimensione materiale – al piano istituzionale mediante il richiamo alla giurisprudenza di legittimita. In altre parole, dalla limitata giurisprudenza analizzata e possibile ipotizzare che il peso della dimensione sociale sia di fatto riassorbito dal piano "istituzionale" attraverso la formulazione di una decisione rispettosa della giurisprudenza di legittimita, per cui "ancora una volta, nulla sostituisce il diritto tranne l’auto-riformulazione del diritto".
The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants’ (UFMs) access paths in Ital... more The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants’ (UFMs) access paths in Italy and France. The aim is to describe how Italy and France intercept the UFMs to European coasts, and how they are identified and guided to specific reception facilities by examining the data and available references. The focus is on the legal dimension of the “non- reception system”. These are cases in which states have been convicted of violating children’s rights. How the Western world has tried to institutionalise the concept of children’s rights is closely related to the concept and operating modes of legal principles and “cultures”. In a way, the study of legal culture represents a measure on of laws. In this paper, we highlight the usefulness of analysing the principle of the best interest of child (BIC), introduced in the ideal- typical configuration as a free formulation, which can only be understood based on the interpretation of Courts’ decisions taken on behalf of UFMs.
Vol. 12 No. 6: Legal culture and empirical research, 2022
The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants' (UFMs) access paths in Ital... more The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants' (UFMs) access paths in Italy and France. The aim is to describe how Italy and France intercept the UFMs to European coasts, and how they are identified and guided to specific reception facilities by examining the data and available references. The focus is on the legal dimension of the "non-reception system". These are cases in which states have been convicted of violating children's rights. How the Western world has tried to institutionalise the concept of children's rights is closely related to the concept and operating modes of legal principles and "cultures". In a way, the study of legal culture represents a measure on of laws. In this paper, we highlight the usefulness of analysing the principle of the best interest of child (BIC), introduced in the ideal-typical configuration as a free formulation, which can only be understood based on the interpretation of Courts' decisions taken on behalf of UFMs.
The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to under... more The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to understand child vulnerability and agency. The research approach focuses on criminal judgements pronounced in Italian courts and assesses how institutional interpretations support perceptions of vulnerability or agency that are often promoted or defined by criminal law perspectives. The attempt is to investigate human trafficking both as a multifaceted phenomenon and as a process to link together the functioning of elements of the human trafficking system that as a prism assumes different shapes in a growing complexity.
New developments in biotechnology and their implications for criminal justice have brought the na... more New developments in biotechnology and their implications for criminal justice have brought the nature vs. nurture debate into poignant relief in recent years. Poorly articulated and for many years biased towards the knowledge traditions of the hard sciences, however, the debate yearns for a basic dualistic reformulation to come up to speed with the contemporary needs of society. Four levels of contention – epistemology, mankind’s place in the scale of life, singularity and the naturalistic fallacy - are traced through a review of the literature and theoretical thinking on this issue as it has developed over time. An unitary science that embraces both the biological and the social is required to match the pressing demands of biotechnological advances and handle their direct impact on the interpretation of deviant behavior in the courtroom.
This article suggests a research approach aimed at the empirical investigation of how the require... more This article suggests a research approach aimed at the empirical investigation of how the requirements of social defence can be reciprocally compatible with those of the protection of minors in juvenile criminal proceedings or, vice-versa, feature aspects of incompatibility. Based on a research project of 35 trials and a series of interviews of privileged witnesses conducted at the Catania Juvenile Court, the article sets out to run an empirical check on whether or not the specific autonomy attributed to juvenile criminal proceedings translates into a procedural structure capable of handing down decisions that are legitimate in a sociological sense. The research attempts to identify a decision-making structure and roles necessarily related to the conditions of functionality to be found empirically in this kind of proceedings usable for indicating the proceedings’ legal nature as a specific, autonomous decision-making process.
The paper provides an analysis of perception and representation that the children have about publ... more The paper provides an analysis of perception and representation that the children have about public spaces of Catania, in particular the feelings of insecurity and autonomy that arise in their daily lives. In particular, it was pointed out the testing of a mixed methodology to study the complex production and demonstration needs of this specific portion of the population.
SocietàMutamentoPolitica: Rivista Italiana di Sociologia, 2020
The paper reflects on the potential of some restorative justice tools read as inclusion practices... more The paper reflects on the potential of some restorative justice tools read as inclusion practices in the juvenile criminal sphere and extendable to the field of immigrant minors. The scenario involving both types of minors is the context of economic, social and family fragility on which the challenge of inclusion is played – most often missed, in the first case, and, perhaps, future, in the second. The context of analysis is that of a path of mediation experienced in the Brazilian reality. Brazil is a territory with high social stratification that recalls central themes of social and intercultural coexistence. It provides an example of how mediation logic and practices can rise to category and interpretative tools to understand complex and contradictory dynamics of integration and at the same time marginalization and exclusion, which in contemporary times characterize, starting from Simmel's words, relationships with "the other", "the stranger", the "for...
The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to under... more The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to understand child vulnerability and agency. The research approach focuses on criminal judgements pronounced in Italian courts and assesses how institutional interpretations support perceptions of vulnerability or agency that are often promoted or defined by criminal law perspectives. The attempt is to investigate human trafficking both as a multifaceted phenomenon and as a process to link together the functioning of elements of the human trafficking system that as a prism assumes different shapes in a growing complexity.
15.30 | I SESSION –HUMANITARIAN COMMUNICATION: ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS INTRODUCTION AND CHA... more 15.30 | I SESSION –HUMANITARIAN COMMUNICATION: ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS INTRODUCTION AND CHAIR: Paola Parmiggiani (University of Bologna) KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Suzanne Franks, City University of London, UK Missing out on the politics Media coverage of humanitarian crises. 16.30 | DISCUSSANTS: Fausto Colombo, Cattolica University of Milano Pierlugi Musarò, University of Bologna 17.00 | QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2017
The complex relationship between children online and digital technologies is the starting point o... more The complex relationship between children online and digital technologies is the starting point of this reflection of a growing process of multidisciplinary theoretical attention to building children’s biographies. On the one hand, the concepts of “risk and childhood safety” have become increasingly central in institutional discourses. The content of this attention seems, however, to assume more the form of adults’ fears, dealing with an endless struggle for a utopian safety for their children, than the reality of what really can be a “risk” for children online. On the other hand, the current changes in the representations of childhood are increasingly oriented to a vision of the child as the subject of its own history and therefore more active and participatory. This makes it difficult to manage the distinction between adults and children and is problematic for the use of traditional parenting styles. Starting from a reflection on the main theoretical perspectives that have been co...
Gli autori presentano i risultati di una ricerca empirica, che riflettono la tendenza generale de... more Gli autori presentano i risultati di una ricerca empirica, che riflettono la tendenza generale del diritto flessibile (liquido) a stimolare l’accentuarsi della responsabilita/ discrezionalita nei processi decisionali. I risultati ottenuti evidenziano che le corti di merito tendono ad ancorarsi a una piu limitata "giurisprudenza locale" che abbia superato il vaglio, in punto di diritto, del giudice di legittimita; questo fatto implica che gli operatori giuridici, nell’elaborare le conoscenze sui fenomeni sociali - tratto fondamentale "del fare diritto" - riconducono il processo di de-formalizzazione, che porta il ragionamento sul piano della dimensione materiale – al piano istituzionale mediante il richiamo alla giurisprudenza di legittimita. In altre parole, dalla limitata giurisprudenza analizzata e possibile ipotizzare che il peso della dimensione sociale sia di fatto riassorbito dal piano "istituzionale" attraverso la formulazione di una decisione rispettosa della giurisprudenza di legittimita, per cui "ancora una volta, nulla sostituisce il diritto tranne l’auto-riformulazione del diritto".
The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants’ (UFMs) access paths in Ital... more The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants’ (UFMs) access paths in Italy and France. The aim is to describe how Italy and France intercept the UFMs to European coasts, and how they are identified and guided to specific reception facilities by examining the data and available references. The focus is on the legal dimension of the “non- reception system”. These are cases in which states have been convicted of violating children’s rights. How the Western world has tried to institutionalise the concept of children’s rights is closely related to the concept and operating modes of legal principles and “cultures”. In a way, the study of legal culture represents a measure on of laws. In this paper, we highlight the usefulness of analysing the principle of the best interest of child (BIC), introduced in the ideal- typical configuration as a free formulation, which can only be understood based on the interpretation of Courts’ decisions taken on behalf of UFMs.
Vol. 12 No. 6: Legal culture and empirical research, 2022
The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants' (UFMs) access paths in Ital... more The paper analyses the topic of unaccompanied foreign minor migrants' (UFMs) access paths in Italy and France. The aim is to describe how Italy and France intercept the UFMs to European coasts, and how they are identified and guided to specific reception facilities by examining the data and available references. The focus is on the legal dimension of the "non-reception system". These are cases in which states have been convicted of violating children's rights. How the Western world has tried to institutionalise the concept of children's rights is closely related to the concept and operating modes of legal principles and "cultures". In a way, the study of legal culture represents a measure on of laws. In this paper, we highlight the usefulness of analysing the principle of the best interest of child (BIC), introduced in the ideal-typical configuration as a free formulation, which can only be understood based on the interpretation of Courts' decisions taken on behalf of UFMs.
The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to under... more The aim of this article is to reconceptualise the notion of child trafficking by seeking to understand child vulnerability and agency. The research approach focuses on criminal judgements pronounced in Italian courts and assesses how institutional interpretations support perceptions of vulnerability or agency that are often promoted or defined by criminal law perspectives. The attempt is to investigate human trafficking both as a multifaceted phenomenon and as a process to link together the functioning of elements of the human trafficking system that as a prism assumes different shapes in a growing complexity.
New developments in biotechnology and their implications for criminal justice have brought the na... more New developments in biotechnology and their implications for criminal justice have brought the nature vs. nurture debate into poignant relief in recent years. Poorly articulated and for many years biased towards the knowledge traditions of the hard sciences, however, the debate yearns for a basic dualistic reformulation to come up to speed with the contemporary needs of society. Four levels of contention – epistemology, mankind’s place in the scale of life, singularity and the naturalistic fallacy - are traced through a review of the literature and theoretical thinking on this issue as it has developed over time. An unitary science that embraces both the biological and the social is required to match the pressing demands of biotechnological advances and handle their direct impact on the interpretation of deviant behavior in the courtroom.
Contro la tratta. Un’analisi contestuale in chiave socio-giuridica, 2020
Il volume propone un’analisi sociologica delle tutele giuridiche contro la tratta di esseri umani... more Il volume propone un’analisi sociologica delle tutele giuridiche contro la tratta di esseri umani. Il lavoro descrive i processi di identificazione e di contrasto al fenomeno della tratta di minorenni che prendono forma su parte del territorio siciliano. Lo scopo è di mettere in luce le difficoltà e le opportunità che a livello locale caratterizzano tali processi al fine di restituire una visione di sistema come patrimonio di conoscenze condivise tra attori istituzionali e sociali con expertise, mission e informazioni differenti, ma chiamati a collaborare per una unicità di intenti. Dovendo studiare prassi istituzionali e forme di implementazione normativa, il livello locale ha costituito uno spazio di esplorazione sociale imprescindibile, informando la ricerca sul sistema di contrasto della tratta che si è sviluppato in anni recenti nella città di Catania e che, nel tempo, ha assunto rilevanza sul piano europeo. Le informazioni contenute costituiscono parte di una ricerca che ha avuto ad oggetto una comparazione internazionale tra prassi di contrasto del fenomeno. La chiave di lettura utilizzata riprende il filone di studi sociologici che ha riscoperto l’importanza della fiducia quale concetto per comprendere la nascita e il perdurare delle relazioni sociali che si sviluppano in condizioni di incertezza: il carattere di risorsa della fiducia laddove la previsione e il controllo dell’agire altrui non sembrano possibili.
IL SAPERE SPECIALISTICO NEL GIUDIZIO PENALE Profili d’analisi di sociologia del diritto, 2014
Il lavoro tenta una ricostruzione - nella dinamica processuale - del rapporto tra il giudice e l'... more Il lavoro tenta una ricostruzione - nella dinamica processuale - del rapporto tra il giudice e l'esperto (il consulente di parte e/o il perito) prendendo spunto dalle esperienze più significative di alcune sentenze penali, non solo italiane, che hanno suscitato un dibattito serrato anche a livello internazionale. Il problema centrale riguarda il confronto tra due tipi di saperi - quello della scienza e quello del diritto - resi incommensurabili dai differenti codici di comunicazione, la cui convivenza normativamente definita in contesti probatori è tuttavia necessaria per la riproduzione del "sistema giustizia". L'analisi proposta si interroga sulle modalità e il grado di penetrazione dei risultati delle più recenti acquisizioni scientifiche, sulla formulazione o sulla riformulazione di alcuni dei problemi classici del diritto, anche nelle riflessioni sviluppate dalla dottrina giuridica. Orientando l'analisi a partire dalla struttura del procedimento giuridico - in cui i due tipi di conoscenza sono chiamati a "convivere" - è possibile mostrare come molti dei problemi emersi evidenzino il rischio di una trasformazione poco controllata dei caratteri della stessa decisione giudiziale.
I modelli istituzionali di intervento sui minori sono tesi tra la crescente determinazione del pr... more I modelli istituzionali di intervento sui minori sono tesi tra la crescente determinazione del principio dell'interesse del minore e la continua variabilità delle nozioni di disagio e di devianza. In Italia, lo strutturarsi di un sistema di giustizia penale minorile ha affrontato questa tensione costruendo col processo una struttura di comunicazione tra ruoli, attori e professionalità che seppure eterogenei sono considerati necessari a realizzare la tutela perseguita. Il processo diviene il "luogo" in cui le conoscenze di tipo giuridico, sociologico, psicologico concorrono a determinare ciò che costituirà l'"interesse del minore". Con una ricerca empirica, compiuta su un campione di processi penali minorili e su un campione di strumenti di pianificazione dei servizi sociali in Sicilia, questo lavoro propone una ipotesi di lettura della comunicazione che si realizza nelle strutture processuali e nei procedimenti amministrativi che riguardano i minori. I risultati a cui si perviene mettono in luce alcuni legami inespressi nella definizione della condizione del minore e suggeriscono alcune chiavi interpretative dell'attuale reciproco riferimento tra politiche penali e politiche sociali.
Il lavoro tenta una ricostruzione – nella dinamica processuale –del rapporto tra il giudice e l’e... more Il lavoro tenta una ricostruzione – nella dinamica processuale –del rapporto tra il giudice e l’esperto (il consulente di parte e/o il perito) prendendo spunto dalle esperienze più significative di alcune sentenze penali, non solo italiane, che hanno suscitato un dibattito serrato anche a livello internazionale. Il problema centrale riguarda il confronto tra due tipi di saperi – quello della scienza e quello del diritto – resi incommensurabili dai differenti codici di comunicazione, la cui convivenza normativamente definita in contesti probatori è tuttavia necessaria per la riproduzione del “sistema giustizia”. L’analisi proposta si interroga sulle modalità ed il grado di penetrazione dei risultati delle più recenti acquisizioni scientifiche sulla formulazione o sulla riformulazione di alcuni dei problemi classici del diritto, anche nelle riflessioni sviluppate dalla dottrina giuridica. Orientando l’analisi a partire dalla struttura del procedimento giuridico - in cui i due tipi di conoscenza sono chiamati a “convivere” – è possibile mostrare come molti dei problemi emersi evidenzino il rischio di una trasformazione poco controllata dei caratteri della stessa decisione giudiziale.
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L'analisi proposta si interroga sulle modalità e il grado di penetrazione dei risultati delle più recenti acquisizioni scientifiche, sulla formulazione o sulla riformulazione di alcuni dei problemi classici del diritto, anche nelle riflessioni sviluppate dalla dottrina giuridica. Orientando l'analisi a partire dalla struttura del procedimento giuridico - in cui i due tipi di conoscenza sono chiamati a "convivere" - è possibile mostrare come molti dei problemi emersi evidenzino il rischio di una trasformazione poco controllata dei caratteri della stessa decisione giudiziale.
L’analisi proposta si interroga sulle modalità ed il grado di penetrazione dei risultati delle più recenti acquisizioni scientifiche sulla formulazione o sulla riformulazione di alcuni dei problemi classici del diritto, anche nelle riflessioni sviluppate dalla dottrina giuridica.
Orientando l’analisi a partire dalla struttura del procedimento giuridico - in cui i due tipi di conoscenza sono chiamati a “convivere” – è possibile mostrare come molti dei problemi emersi evidenzino il rischio di una trasformazione poco controllata dei caratteri della stessa decisione giudiziale.