Il trattamento dei rei sessuali in carcere. L'esperienza dell'Unità di Trattamento Intensificato nella Casa di Reclusione di Milano-Bollate

Abstract

According to the latest statistical data by Istat (the Italian Central Statistics Institute)1, in Italian prisons 2352 inmates have been arrested for sex offences (1466 Italians and 866 non-Italians). Of these 1466, 1241 have undergone final judgment. More recent data show that of a total of 54.000 inmates in Italian prisons, 3.444 are incarcerated for sex offences, and 369 of them are waiting for trial. In 2000, sex offenders were the 1.5% of the total inmates, with a peak in 2010 when they 8,5% while in 2016 they went back down to 6,5%2. Yet the social response to sex offending is not related to the number of crimes, but to a subjective feeling of insecurity. Public opinion is characterized by ambivalent necessities, i.e. by the psychological need for revenge and indemnification on the one hand, and by the offender’s expiation on the other and often wants the offender to be chased away, repressed, isolated from society. From this point of view any other approach to the offence that is not restrictive
is considered to be pointless and inadequate, not proportionate to the damage that has been caused. Treatment ideology is often regarded as too permissive, as an attempt to minimize the seriousness of the event-offence, the responsibility and the guilt of the offender. In reality, custodial sentences have been proven to be unsatisfactory and inadequate as the sole form of defence and compensation towards victims and society in general, if it is understood from a mere indemnifying point of view. We have to think about other levels of intervention strategies and prevention, including a rehabilitating approach, centred on the treatment of sex offenders, with a view to their reintegration into social life.