Antonio La Spina

The costs of illegality: a research programme

Rocco Chinnici was among the first to understand that Cosa Nostra was a vast and unitary organisation. Therefore, special policy instruments were required in order to fight it. Among other things, he gave birth to what would later become the anti-mafia pool and promoted investigations on assets and financial transactions, which would have inspired the provisions on the seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from such crimes. In addition, he had a role in the framing of article 416-bis of the Italian criminal code, introduced by the so-called Rognoni-La Torre Law. Furthermore, he understood the need to study the impact of Mafia-type gangs on the whole economy of the territories affected, given that their endemic presence delays and distorts development processes. In 2006, the Foundation that bears his name decided to create a research group whose task was to analyse such economic impact in a scientifically rigorous way. The extensive research programme that the Foundation decided to begin included the analysis of both direct and indirect economically relevant costs generated by Mafia-type organisations, as well as by other types of illegality (corruption, ordinary crime, ‘weak legality’). It is understandably an ambitious goal, which will be covered, if this will ever be possible, over a long period of time and with several research projects. Given the resources available, generously offered by the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin, it was possible to be engaged in two twin research projects: the first was devoted to Mafia-type extortion in Sicily and the second to the same phenomenon in Campania. A peculiar methodological approach was followed, not adopted by other scholars before, based on cases taken from judicial acts (see Section 3). Certain contributions and certain ‘numbers’ on the size of Mafia-type businesses had already been produced, but for different reasons they were not convincing (Section 2). Therefore, we decided to focus on extortion (which after all is about money transfers, or at least about choices which can be translated into monetary costs), because we believed that it might have been possible to quantify it in a reliable way. In more recent times, some relevant new studies were done whose strengths and weaknesses are also presented below (Section 3). Today, we are still convinced that our approach and the use of judicial sources can be extremely fruitful. This special issue of Global Crime hosts some of the writings originally published in Italian in the book on the costs of extortions in Campania. However, such papers were updated, and duly underwent the review process. Therefore, they are substantially different from the Italian ones.

Polityka publiczna a partie polityczne

Związek pomiedzy partiami politycznymi a politykami publicznymi jest pozornie oczywisty: partie determinują ksztalt polityk. Niemniej jednak, jak zauwaza Autor niniejszego artykulu, w literaturze wielokrotnie stwierdzono, ze partie odgrywają coraz mniejszą role w tworzeniu polityk. Autor przywoluje tu m.in. teorie o koncu ideologii; o zacieraniu sie roznic miedzy programami poszczegolnych partii; o pojawieniu sie silnych przywodcow, ktorzy mogą sobie pozwolic na uniezaleznienie sie od swojej partii; o wplywie biurokracji na cykl polityk publicznych i o czynnikach zewnetrznych mogących determinowac treśc polityk. Po krotkim omowieniu tych tez Autor wysuwa wobec nich swoje kontrargumenty. W opinii Autora partie wciąz pelnią wazną role, choc ich znaczenie uzaleznione jest od struktury decyzyjnej i od konkretnych polityk. W niektorych przypadkach partie mogą miec motywacje do tego, aby ukryc swoją prawdziwą role, by wyborcy nie musieli winic ich za podjecie niepopularnych decyzji. W dalszej cześci artykulu Autor analizuje casus Wloch, sugerując, ze związek miedzy partiami sprawującymi wladze a przyjmowanymi politykami byl bardzo znaczący niemalze we wszystkich okresach Republiki Wloskiej.

Mafia e corruzione: differenze concettuali, connessioni, strumenti di contrasto

Mafia and corruption are often intertwined. It is necessary to distinguish them analytically. The mafias (large and small, old and new, famous or unknown) are organizations. Corruption, instead, is not always organized, and anyway, when it is, this happens in several ways. Mobsters and corrupt persons can cooperate, but especially the latter may sometimes try to avoid it. Today’s Italy is witnessing an intensification of the fight against corruption.

Tele-e-Health in prison. Innovation and collaboration

The future of drug treatment services in today’s digital society (web society) depends, among other things, on the interoperability between health care information systems and other information systems linked to social control agencies, police forces and the judiciary. Agreements and partnerships between such different institutional actors should be strengthened, with regard to both old addictions (to psychoactive substances), and new ones (regarding Internet, gambling, and so on). Possible areas of interoperability and related problems should be analyzed. We focus on four points: a) the impact models and tools of tele-e-Health in prison; b) the intertwining between e-government and new digital privacy rules with regard to addictions; c) the operational networks of inter-institutional cooperation (e.g. the recovery paths for addicted subjects reported to the judiciary); d) a federal model of tele-cooperation in prison as example of interoperability between institutions.

La tele-E-Health in carcere. Collaborazione e innovazione

The future of drug treatment services in today’s digital society (web society) depends, among other things, on the interoperability between health care information systems and other information systems linked to social control agencies, police forces and the judiciary. Agreements and partnerships between such different institutional actors should be strengthened, with regard to both old addictions (to psychoactive substances), and new ones (regarding Internet, gambling, and so on). Possible areas of interoperability and related problems should be analyzed. We focus on four points: a) the impact models and tools of tele-e-Health in prison; b) the intertwining between e-government and new digital privacy rules with regard to addictions; c) the operational networks of inter-institutional cooperation (e.g. the recovery paths for addicted subjects reported to the judiciary); d) a federal model of tele-cooperation in prison as example of interoperability between institutions.