Unpunished crimes: three out of four in Italy

We truly are a strange country. Daniele Bedini (under investigation for a double homicide) and Zlatan Vasilijevic (perpetrator of a double femicide) should have been in prison and not free to kill their victims . They were serving sentences, partly due to final convictions, for aggravated robbery, mistreatment, and domestic violence. At the same time, as of December 31, 2021, Italian prisons numbered 54.134, compared to 50.000 available places. And thousands of prisoners are incarcerated for minor crimes and serving sentences they could easily serve outside. So we are witnessing a double waste: on the one hand, impunity, even for very serious crimes like femicide; on the other, overcrowding . A double waste and a double injustice.

Crimes not punished in Italy

In Italy, home burglaries account for approximately 370 per 100 inhabitants (fifth in the European ranking), and what makes them even more unbearable is the total impunity of the perpetrators , even when they are identified: investigations are closed, with no perpetrators found, in 97 percent of cases. Car and motorcycle thefts and computer crimes go completely unpunished, nearly 100 percent of cases. If you reflect on these numbers for even a few seconds, you immediately understand how much and how Italians experience security as a bereavement, a loss. Security, in fact, is not only the lack of fear of being attacked by thieves, but also the certainty that anyone who attempts it will be attacked. For too many years, parties of both the left and the right have made the enormous mistake of underestimating this fundamental right of citizenship : the left considering it a goal of right-wing voters, the right instead loading it with meanings far from reality, such as the demagogic "hunt for foreigners." Demagoguery spills over to the point of invoking weapons (as if that would solve the problem) as self-defense, demanding that we all become gun-toting citizens in the face of a state that fails to protect us. "Heads in the sand," on the other hand, mixes superficial pietism with the dismissal of a problem we must deal with: our safety. An absolute commodity, sometimes squandered. In the vicious cycle of this double hypocrisy, we lose sight of reality, the only thing that can help us keep our feet on the ground and react in the right, or at least useful and reasonable, ways. The truth begins with two numbers: in Italy, bars and shops suffer 14 armed robberies a day , one every two hours. These are shocking figures, which make us understand how these shopkeepers, often, like the bartender in a small town in Emilia, local landmarks, are under the thumb of crime. Small, medium, or large, it doesn't even matter. At the same time, it must be said that Italy is not the Wild West , and in any case, robberies of commercial activities have decreased by 13,6 percent (the source is Istat) in recent years.

Security emergency in Italy

Robberies have declined, as has public safety, and citizens' perception of it. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? Where lies the black hole? The answers are summed up in one word: impunity. Of these robberies, which occur at a rate of one every two hours, only half of the time are the perpetrators arrested. Too little, too little, despite the courageous efforts of many Carabinieri and police officers who do their duty as servants of the state. And how long can someone convicted of murder or attempted murder be kept in prison? Too little, too little, considering the seriousness of the crime : of the 10 robbers (including armed robbers) arrested each year, thanks in part to the (lowly and poorly paid) work of law enforcement, less than half are in prison after a year, and this signifies the complete elimination of the civilized principle of certainty of punishment. A justice system that ignores those guilty of very serious crimes and instead lets the usual poor wretches rot in prison is clearly bankrupt. Also because of the usual black holes in the criminal justice system, because many magistrates consider this a minor part of their work (compared to the popularity gained, for example, by investigating politics and corruption), and because of a brutal justice system that, amidst a thousand wasteful laws, bylaws, and various tricks, almost always manages to guarantee impunity for the guilty. Even those of armed robberies. It's the same story, if you think about it and look closely, that we see with corruption, mass absenteeism , and home burglaries (99 percent of which are unsolved!). This is where our fear and our anger as citizens are fueled. This is where the legal country crumbles and the Italy of illegality asserts itself. This is where the cultists of violence, offensive and defensive, are drawn. And this is where we should start to say: More security for all, fewer criminals who always get away with it.

Read also:

• How to avoid burglaries at home
• Confiscated assets: a waste of state resources
• Corruption in Italy: Laws and authorities aren't enough. We need to rediscover honesty, a now obsolete word.
• Banks, corruption, and oversight: who protects savers? And will scammers foot the bill?

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