Violent crimes committed by juveniles. The “juvenile’s biological, psychic and social vulnerability”

Abstract

The paper focuses on an analysis of juveniles committing violent crimes, with particular reference to violence of a sexual nature. Using the results of a study carried out on data relating to juveniles dealt with in the Juvenile Centre of Justice of the Emilia Romagna Region (Ministry of Justice, Bologna), and in particular in the Reception Centre, the authors make an analysis of the phenomenon from a criminal-genetic and criminal-dynamic point of view, with an approach (in the light of social-environmental data) that focuses on the family dynamics within which the crime originates from a multifactorial and relational perspective. The analysis, which concerns the nature and social function of family and the historical development of these aspects, also takes account of the current lively debate on the notion of “parenthood”. This theme is - at present - the object of analysis, on behalf of scientific doctrine and literature, from numerous viewpoints, with relation to which it today bears importance in the legal contexts. These considerations are confirmed in the light of results obtained so far through the ongoing research carried out at the Reception Centre in Bologna on juveniles committing violent crimes. These results show an extremely high proportion of youths belonging to disaggregated families, accounting for almost the entire sample (94.3% of cases). The paper so re-establishes the importance of the correlation between “broken homes” and juvenile disease. This phenomenon bears particular significance today: first and foremost, with regard to the measures adopted by operators assigned to treat juveniles in the criminal law sector, where professional experience has already shown the benefits of placing family at the centre of the youth’s resocialisation process. In any case, the analysis of such social factors and dynamics appears to be particularly stimulating also with regard to the scientific debate in criminology, particularly with a view to generating proposals relating to legislation and political-social objectives, i.e. with specific reference to the legislative framework (Law 8 of February 2006, No. 54) which currently regulates cases of family breakdown in our legal system.