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Summaries in English

Next in criminality to him who violates the laws of his country, is he who violates the language. Walter Savage

UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI L’AQUILA

Faculty of Education

ACADEMIC YEAR 2000/2001 

Courses of specialization in investigation, security and criminology. 

In 1998 the university of L’Aquila has decided to organise a refresher course of specialised studies in security and criminology. Our course originated in a Faculty of education. Our approach is characterised by that specificity: from an humanistic point of view, we want to explain to people what security is and what criminology can do for them.

Criminology could give important advice for decisions and strategies concerning the defence of properties, interests, information. The teaching of applied criminology is obviously of great importance for police forces, investigators, and security operators. But, from this point of view we supposed we were easily defeated by the competition of the programs offered by the schools already existing (within the great public agencies which have the duty of training their operators in the field). Sophisticated technology has a great role in the development of criminology, but it requires means that are beyond the limited possibilities of a refresher course.

We abandoned the idea of being competitive that way. All the same, we were aware of being able to offer something that is not very well performed in other courses existing in Italy and elsewhere. We decided to offer only one part of what is necessary to the training of operators in security and social control: an approach to criminology which is comparative, institutional, and humanistic.

These 10 points are illustrative of our approach:

  1. Humanistic criminology starts from the consideration that human behaviour is embodied in a web of cultural, psychological, sociological, physiological conditions. If we ignore those conditions, we lose the meaning of criminal behaviour. Frequently we speak about <<monsters>> because we are not able to understand the mind which has decided to commit a given criminal act. For humanistic criminology, empathy and compassion are the commencement of understanding, and we consider nothing human alien to humanistic criminology.
  2. Crime, like all human behaviour, is rational. Our rationality is performed within an institutional context. Individuals do a cost-benefit analysis of reward/punishment before breaking the law. Institutions have a decisive role: they can prevent crime (like youth centres and interventions in the labour market) or discourage crime (like fair investigations and correct incarceration). Quantity and quality of crime is a measurement of the functioning of the institutional framework in every society. As John Stuart Mill said: <<the most criminal actions are, to a being like a man, not more unnatural than most of the virtues>>.
  3. The Italian statistics and debates about crime must be seen in the international context. The comparison between western and eastern experiences gives us the possibility to appreciate many internal characteristics; one of them is above all important: citizens have rights and duties. In order to prevent crime, a sentiment of responsibility must be impressed within our souls and bones. English Prime Minister Tony Blair has brilliantly underlined that responsibilities matter.
  4. The radical culture of the Sixties frequently demonised the police and excused violence. Security is not a fascist or authoritarian word: it is the more controversial spot in human culture. From Horace to Popper, security is a precondition for the possibility of living a good life in an open society. Those who want cope with social ills or rehabilitate people liable for crime must start from the moral dimension of crime. Some related themes dealt with in our course: from Lombroso to sociobiology; deviance and stigma; the civilization of crime.
  5. The methodology of investigations is a crucial topic in a society characterised by abundance of information, indiscretion, rumors, clues, and suspicions. The great information revolution has deeply altered all aspects of police, prosecutorial, and court room dynamics, including forensics evidence, plea bargaining and, most of all, the uprightness of the trial-by-jury system. From Durkheim to McLuhan, there is a very intricate way for the exploration of many new crimes.
  6. New emancipation has created new problems in quantity and quality, for instance in field as juvenile justice and female criminality. At the beginning of the Sixties, in the U.S. the ratio of women offenders to males was 1:5, and had grown to 1:3 during the Seventies. In Italy at the beginning of the Nineties we speak daily about <<baby killers>> and <<baby bosses>>. Even more wives, girlfriends, sons of Mafia members are involved in crime activities. The trend is global. Even in the developing world, there are more women and young people in prison than ever before, but this is the consequence not the cure.
  7. After the development of Clean Hands investigations, white collar criminality is again centrestage in Italian politics and culture. Distinct from crimes such as robbery, rape, and assaults, white collar criminality is offen associated with studies about social justice and control against corruption. The damage of corruption (in politics, in financial and account markets) to moral stability and economic development explains the importance of anti-corruption programs and legislation. Some related themes dealt with in the course: C. Wright Mills and the <<Higher Immorality>>; the extension of corruption; the criminalization of political enemies; inefficient administrative system and rigid legal system as causes of crime.
  8. Traditional criminology is reluctant in analysing crimes deriving from <<the misuse of State-powers>>. Governmental illegalities include such topics as war crimes, violations of human rights, illegal secret police operations, genocide and ethnic cleansing, police corruption; un-authorised surveillance, espionage, assassinations, disruption, and experiments. Some themes treated in the course: the universal declaration of human rights; from Tiananmen Square to Pol Pot's crimes; the doctrine of Raison d'Etat; hate crimes; scandals.
  9. Courses on intelligence are well founded in anglosaxon universities. For instance, the Harvard University Intelligence and Policy Program, founded in 1987 in cooperation with CIA. is well-known, which led research and training on the role of intelligence in policymaking. The project was held at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. In Italy there is not nothing similar. Some related themes dealt with in our course: the distinction between espionage and intelligence; evolution of espionage; the lack of academic literature on intelligence in Italy; typologies of spies; case studies that illustrate the role of intelligence in national policymaking
  10. From many points of view terrorism is not a typical criminological subject. But undoubtedly it has relevant consequences for practioners of criminal issues. Some related themes dealt with in our course: brief history of terrorism; idealistic terrorism; single-issue terrorists; international terrorism and domestic terrorism; the American case, from the World Trade Center bombing to the Oklahoma City bombing; the Italian case, from the Sixties to the Nineties. 

Our courses have been designed for those interested in security matters from many points of view, even belonging to different fields and holding different positions.

For this reason the courses offer general information on different issues. The qualification given at the end will be appreciated by many private and public organisations.

Some of our students are young people who are interested in a first survey on criminology, and some are experienced operators who are interested in an academic treatment of problems found in daily activities.

The teachers on our courses are highly qualified university professors and specialists operative in fields such as criminology, victimology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, neurophysiology, computer science, law, and medicine. We have invited to speak in our lessons bodyguards, tax officers, secret service officers, Zen Abbots, policemen, magistrates and judges. One of the best followed lesson in our course has been held by the specialist who directed the inquiry on <<the Florence monster>>. Our issues range from fear to risk analysis, self-control, self-knowledge, paranoia, methodology of investigation, computer crimes, the security industry, the juridical framework, Mafia, organised crime, disorganised crime, environmental crimes, mobbing, tampering, serial killers. 

Those are some of the lessons which have been listed in our school calendar:

  1. Policies of security - (Prof. F. Sidoti, criminologist)
  2. Neurophisiology of insecurity sentiments – (Prof. C. Pacitti, neuroscientist)
  3. Psychology of security – (Prof. G. Attili, psychologist)
  4. Security and safety – (Prof. A. Paoletti, forensic scientist)
  5. Sexual slavery – (Prof. S. Marchese, historian)
  6. Insanity and crime (Prof. A. Gasbarri, neuroscientist)
  7. Distinction between transgression, deviance, crime – (Prof. G. De Leo, criminologist)
  8. Immigration and crime – (Prof. U. Dante, historian)
  9. Logic of the inquiry: circumstantial evidence, sign, clue– (Dr. F. Donato, security operator)
  10. Computer crimes – (Col. U. Rapetto, security operator)
  11. Juvenile delinquency – (Dr. M. Gammone, criminologist)
  12. White collar criminality – (Dr. I. Portelli, security operator)
  13. Drug addiction - (Dr. C. Mannetti, lecturer and lawyer)
  14. The public security structures (Col. Suppa, security operator)
  15. The public security structures (Dr. Comes, former head of the Italian Criminalpol)
  16. The Italian police (Pref. F. Masone, Head of the Italian Police)