Violent crimes by foreigners in Italian provinces: an esplanatory study

Abstract

Literature dealing with the reasons why foreigners commit crime in Italy generated a series of theoretical interpretations, often taken from the international context, which until now have not been subjected to any empirical validation. Therefore, the causes of crime committed by immigrants are not known yet, neither as a whole not with reference to its violent forms. After dividing theories on migration and crime in four macro-areas (cultural theories, economic theories, theories connected to labelling and to social and normative construction of deviance, theories on organised crime and on “induced criminality”), this article will try to test them with reference to (total and violent) crime by foreigners in the Italian provinces: what theories are valid? Is crime by foreigners in Italian provinces predictable and how much? More specifically, theories are transformed into measurable hypotheses in order to test two interpretative models: model 1 with total crime by foreigners (Cf) as dependent variable and model 2 with violent crime by foreigners (VCf) as dependent variable, both measured through the number of foreign convicted individuals every 10 thousands foreign residents in 2006. Independent variables in both models concern phenomena referred to the Italian provinces in 2006: accessibility to the rental housing market, naturalisation, family reunification, employment of foreign workers, absorption capacity of the labour market, job income, irregular low-level manpower, entrepreneurship, foreign organised crime. The results of the linear multiple regression between rates of foreign convicted persons and these independent variables show that model 1 is statistically significant with a R square of 0,324, while model 2, though statistically significant as well, has a lower R square, of 0,167. Low income jobs for foreigners, the use of non-qualified irregular manpower, the low capacity of absorbing foreigners into the job market, on the one hand, and the presence of foreign organised crime, on the other, are among the causes explaining an important part of total crime by foreigners in the Italian provinces. Nevertheless, when violent crime is taken into analysis, these variables lose their predictive capacity and significance and in this case only provincial levels of job income by foreigners account for their violent delinquency. In conclusion, it might be argued that economic theories on blocked opportunities for foreigners and those on foreign delinquency induced by ethnic organised crime are not among the most apt to interpret violent forms of crime by foreigners in Italy, yet they are more suitable to explain the rest of delinquency by immigrants in the country.