Preventing Crime & Creating Safer Communities
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Crime Prevention Information & News

Creating Safer Communities in Europe: a crime prevention sourcebook

ITALY

Italy does not have a national policy on crime prevention, nor do the police carry out explicit crime prevention work, other than through traditional deterrence. Despite this lack of government or police intervention, according to the International Crime Surveys, has below average rates of violent crime and about average rates of property crime (apart from car theft, which is second only to England and Wales).

Levels of crime prevention activity vary significantly according to the interests of the regions and cities. The Region of Emilia Romagno has supported a “safer city” programme in Bologna which as well as tackling delinquency, deals with the problems of illegal immigration and prostitution.

In Italy, most of the pioneering work in the prevention of urban delinquency has been carried out by Turin City Council which is decentralised into 10 Districts with each District running a number of social and economic programmes co-ordinated through the "Youth Observatory".

The Youth Observatory Project aims to act as: a guide for public service practitioners and community volunteers working with young people and a “clearing” house for those who are addressing youth-specific problems at various levels.

This approach originated 25 years ago when the scheme was established through Council bye-laws. It was initially set up to concentrate on drug, alcohol and prostitution related problems but since then it has emerged as a key planning instrument for policy construction at both City and District level. It also acts as a "think tank" on juvenile problems and a co-ordinating body for multi agency initiatives. An important part of its ethos is that it is committed to decentralisation and it encourages community initiatives.

Turin City Council's general approach to programmes for juveniles is based on the following principles:

1. a firm belief in social rehabilitation and social re-integration and a recognition that the penal centred system should be reformed;
2. the local authority has a pivotal role if social rehabilitation and re-integration programmes are to succeed;
3. the offender-victim-community equation has to be addressed;
4. young people will only co-operate with programmes in a meaningful way if they see that they meet their needs;
5. programmes must be co-ordinated, multi-agency and multi-disciplinary;
6. the setting of objectives and running of programmes must have the active support of the juveniles themselves and the local community;
7. programmes have to take into account differences in geographical areas, gender and ethnicity;
8. programmes have to be evaluated and the public must be convinced that they work.

One of the more noticeable features of the project is the deliberate attempt to run activities for a wide range of age groups - from young to old - alongside each other and the encouragement of cross generation socialisation.

The Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Young People at Risk Project

Each year this Project provides professional training for one hundred youths aged between 14 and 29. At least half of these young people are at risk - drug abuse, crime, truancy - and are referred to the Project by social services, the Courts or their school.

The training includes courses on carpentry, sewing, hairdressing, the hotel business, video skills and gardening. These are complemented by sport and cultural activities. The courses are led by qualified trainers backed up by the schools and social services with Turin City Council providing the equipment. Each young person has an individual programme geared to his/her needs.

Evaluation of the programme points to an improvement in the behaviour of the young people and in their ability to develop meaningful relationships.

The Secondary Prevention Project

This project is run inside the city's youth detention centre and aims, through educational development, to give young people a sense of independence and to reintegrate them back into community life.

The programme lasts one year and involves a structured individual plan for each young person on the project. The plan is drawn up by a team of educationalists and social workers and takes into account youth specific problems such as the family situation, drug abuse and deviant behaviour.

The project has been running for ten years and is now well established and occupational qualification centres have been set up in mechanics, music and the restaurant business.

The Fantasy Fair Project

The objective of this project is to encourage social involvement by young people by providing them with space in a large park where they can sell home made products. It involves over 1,000 young people aged 11 to 16 - including marginalised young people - and teachers, parents and youth group leaders. The profits from the sale of these goods helps to fund another project developed by young people which entails cleaning up and planting trees in urban parks.

Turin City Council is pursuing new pilot schemes in collaboration with the juvenile courts and other agencies which seek:

1. to identify "unsafe" areas in the city and develop local strategies in constructing an action plan;
2. a more closely co-ordinated multi-agency approach;
3. to prevent very young people from entering the penal system;
4. the development of informal mechanisms of social control;
5. to make the offender take individual responsibility for his/her actions;
6. the enhancement of compensation to victims;
7. a pilot scheme to deal with school violence;

Amongst the current activities are catering courses, fruit and vegetable production courses, social skills training, work placements and vocational grants, sports placement and remedial education classes.

Work with Non EU Minors

Turin City Council has established cultural mediators because of the specific problems they encountered dealing with non EU juveniles. In particular the young people rejected any kind of contact with institutions even when they could benefit, for example, the legalisation of their immigration status, social and medical assistance. The Council launched an initiative in two high risk housing estates characterised by violence, physical abuse, exploitation and extortion. There is a high proportion of young people from Morocco living on these estates, many of whom are involved in illegal street trading and/or drug dealing. They have little real idea of the risks involved in illegal activity and are "invisible" in that they do not use any of the services provided by the City Council. The estates were targeted because of their impact on neighbouring areas and because they had become the headquarters of small time criminal gangs with a resultant gangland-type "settling of scores".

Aims of the Project

1. to make contact with the young people in their own environment and gain their trust;
2. to offer them basic services - medical assistance, access to public baths and refectories, sport/recreational opportunities, basic Italian literacy programmes and language and culture classes of their country of origin;
3. to encourage them to take vocational training;
4. to inform them about initiatives and services offered by the City Council.