Unpunished crimes: three out of four in Italy

We truly are a strange country. Daniele Bedini (under investigation for double homicide) and Zlatan Vasilijevic (perpetrator of a double femicide)  they should have been in jail and not free to kill their victimsThey were serving sentences, some of which were final, for aggravated robbery, mistreatment, and domestic violence. At the same time, as of December 31, 2021, 54.134 people were detained in Italian prisons, compared to 50.000 available places. And thousands of prisoners are inside for minor crimes and with sentences they could even serve outside. So we are witnessing a double waste: on the one hand, impunity, even for very serious crimes such as femicide; on the other, overcrowdingDouble waste and double injustice.

Crimes not punished in Italy

I burglaries in homes in Italy there are approximately 370 per hundred thousand inhabitants (fifth place in the European ranking), and what makes them even more unbearable is the total impunity of the guilty, even when they are identified: investigations are closed, with no perpetrators, in 97 percent of cases. Completely unpunished, we are talking about nearly 100 percent of cases, are car and motorcycle thefts and computer crimes. If you reflect even for a few seconds on these numbers, you immediately understand how much and how Italians experience security as a mourning, a loss. Security, in fact, is not only the lack of fear of being attacked by thieves, but also the certainty that anyone who tries in some way will be hit. For too many years, parties of the left and right have made the enormous mistake of underestimating this fundamental citizenship rightsThe left considers it a goal of the right-wing electorate, while the right instead loads it with meanings far from reality, such as the demagogic "hunt for foreigners." Demagogy spills over to the point of invoking weapons (as if that would solve the problem) as self-defense, demanding that we all become citizen-gunslingers in the face of a state that fails to protect us. Head-in-the-sand, on the other hand, mixes a superficial pietism with the dismissal of a problem we must deal with: our safety. An absolute good, 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. Reality begins with two numbers: in Italy, bars and shops suffer 14 armed robberies per day, one every two hours. Impressive figures, which show us how these shopkeepers, often, like the bartender in a small Emilian town, 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 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 decreased, as has safety, and citizens' perception of it: How can this apparent contradiction be explained? Where is the black hole? The answers are contained in one word: impunity. Of these robberies, which occur at a rate of one every two hours, only half of the time do we manage to arrest the perpetrator. Not enough, far too little, despite the courageous efforts of so many Carabinieri and police officers who do their duty as servants of the state. And how long can you keep someone convicted of murder or attempted murder in prison? Little, too little, compared to the seriousness of the crimeOf 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 means the civilized principle of certainty of punishment has been wiped out in one fell swoop. A justice system that doesn't keep those guilty of very serious crimes in jail, but instead lets the usual poor people rot in prison, is clearly bankrupt. This is also due to the usual black holes in the criminal justice system, the fact that many magistrates consider this a minor part of their job (compared to the popularity gained, for example, by investigating politics and corruption), and 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. The same movie, if you think about it and look closely, that we watch regarding corruption,mass absenteeism, of home burglaries (99 percent of which are unsolved!). This is where our fear and our anger as citizens are being unleashed. This is where the legal country crumbles and the Italy of lawlessness asserts itself. This is where the cultists of violence, offensive and defensive, fish. 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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