Security and violence in Italy

From Wikiprogress.org

The importance of measuring the progress of Security and Violence

Security and violence is an important dimension of Governance within the Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies and one of the key factors for human well-being and progress of society. As an intermediate goal, it has different impacts, direct and indirect, on those that are the defined final goals of progress in the Global Project.

This idea is also used in Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP)^[1] where "Crime takes many forms and can have a major impact on the welfare of victims, their families and friends and the wider community. Those most directly affected may suffer financially, physically, psychologically and emotionally, while the fear of crime can affect people and limit their lives in many ways. There are other costs as well, including the provision of law enforcement by the police, courts and associated legal services, and corrective action”. In this case, the headline indicators are Unlawful entry with intent and Assault (victimisation rates) and the additional indicators are Homicide rates and Imprisonment rates.
Even Measuring Ireland's Progress ^[2], the indicators Murders and Headline offences are considered as input variables for the measurement of progress.
One reason to consider Security and violence as relevant to the progress of society and human well-being is that this dimension is different between countries, as intensity and type varies (the presence of common crime, organized crime and corruption). People have different perceptions of problems and base life choices on the level of security offered in their respective country.

In Italy, crime is an issue of central consideration for two principle reasons: there is a strong presence of organized crime and corruption, and in certain areas of the country, these problems are expanding. The Corruption Perceptions Index 2009^[3] (estimated by Transparency International, the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption) for example, listed Italy in 63^rd place, which, like Saudi Arabia, is much lower than European countries such as Germany, France, Spain and Austria. It’s also significant that, in 2007, the same index ranked Italy at the 41^st position, a sign that perception of corruption had increased among the Italian population.

A drastic reduction in crime would increase human well-being in different ways. First, there would be a reduction of victims (i.e. murders or drug addicts) and an improvement in the health of the country, especially in the worst affected areas. Secondly, the economy would gain either by an increase in available resources (take, for example, the bribes that decrease the income of many workers in the South of Italy, but there are many other types of scenarios) and the establishment a freer market. Safer people are likely to work, consume and interact more effectively.  

Different aspects of progress in security and violence

Many indicators can be used to explore security and violence, but these factors are not always available across borders. Indeed, Eurostat [4] indicates that “the methods and definitions used in the Member States differ considerably. This should be taken into account when using the figures”. Eurostat is developing a more adaptable system of calculating crime and criminal justice statistics.
Moreover, security and crime official statistics are based on reports that are officially filed. However, the number of crimes reported represents only a fraction of those that actually transpire: transgression and crime statistics indicate “crime apparent” or “crime recorded.” since indicators do not measure the number of irregular crimes or unreported crimes, which are very hard to evaluate.

In Italy, the National Institute of Statistics (Istat)^[5] made calculations in accordance with the National Strategic Framework 2007-2013, subsequently constructing and upgrading a large database of regional socio-economic indicators. Among these, within the theme of legality and Security, three series were published:

• Two Indices of widespread criminality: the first defined as the number of thefts and robberies less severe on the population per 1,000 residents. The second refers to the number of thefts and robberies less severe than the total crimes reported in percentage;
• One index of organized crime defined as the number of crimes related to organized crime for the weighted average of the penalties imposed;
• One index of the conditions of legality and social cohesion: violent crime per 10,000 residents;
• Two indices of juvenile crime: the first index is measured as minors reported for each type of crime (excluding theft) on the total minors reported, while the other considers the minors reported for each type of crime on the number persons arrested;
• One index of perception of households of the risk crime in the area where they live: number of families who feel very or fairly uncomfortable about the risk of crime in the area where they live as percentage of total households;
• One index on the ability to offer regular work: units of irregular work on the total of units work in percentage.

In addition to this large set of ISTAT indicators, the Italian Ministry of Interior regularly publishes a Report on crime^[6], with further information for the definition of this dimension. In particular, the monitoring on drug trafficking and on the actions to contrast various types of crime is very important.

Other useful indexes of security and violence are those related to corruption of government and perception of this among the citizens. The issue of crimes against the government reveals a further difficulty in measuring the data: these crimes are widely "victimless crimes", by the fact that the report lacks the typical vector because there isn’t a victim, person or entity who may submit a report to the police, facilitating both detection and intervention on criminal behaviour.
In Italy, some indications on the corruption of government are published by the Department for the anti-corruption and transparency^[7] of Public Administration, which uses surveys of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Auditors.
On international level and also for Italy, as shown before, are available the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the Bribe Payers Index (BPI)^[8] calculated by Transparency International. The CPI is an index that defines the perception of corruption in the public sector and politics in many countries around the world, giving each nation a rating from 0 (highest corruption) to 10 (no corruption).

Relationships between progress in security and violence and other indicators

Security and violence is very important to measure progress, because has many relationships, direct and indirect, with other targets (final and intermediate) of Global Project framework, even if the assessment of these relationships is not always easy to measure through the available statistics.
Indeed, crime can interfere with the Ecosystem Condition domain, when operates in sectors, such as the disposal of municipal and industrial wastes, causing damage to geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere through increased pollution. In this case, we call it environmental crime, which includes the illegal disposal of special waste, toxic and dangerous, made in quarries, in greenfield land, in unauthorized landfills.
The links between crime and some dimensions of Human Well-being are even more evident: a reduction of violence or drug trafficking increases the physical and mental health not only of victims, but also of their families. Moreover, some recent studies, including Italian ones^[9], are attempting to measure the trade-off between unemployment and crime, on the assumption that those who perceive a higher wages will be less interested in making a crime than those who receive lower wages or those who do not receive wages.

Certainly, more difficult to measure is the improvement of Interpersonal relationshipsand Freedom and Self-Determination that occurs when crime is reduced: where people feel safer, they are less diffident to others, increase their interpersonal relationships and, perhaps, attend social meeting grounds more often. On the other hand, the idea of being robbed or assaulted depends not only on the actual crime index: worry and fear are influenced by other factors, such as the perception of the probability that the event could occur and the fear of serious consequences.

The crimes committed inflict not only physical, psychological and economic damage on victims, but reduces a sense of security for citizens living in the surroudning environment, frequently causing people to change their habits and way of life.

Crime also affects Economy. For example, a recent Italian study[10] highlights, through empirical analysis, that there are significant:

• positive association between investments in construction sector and the organized crime index;
• positive association between investments in public administration and the organized crime index;
• negative association between spending on social protection and the organized crime index;
• negative association between investment in industry and the organized crime index.

Security and violence also:

• discourages domestic and foreign investment;
• reduces the competitiveness of companies, because it imposes higher costs for security;
• reallocates resources by creating uncertainty and inefficiency.

Finally, it involves costs in terms of public investment for security and the fight against crime, which instead could be used in more lucrative sectors.
In the Governance, the corruption certainly undermines the confidence of citizens towards institutions: then exists a negative relationship between corruption and trust.
Even access to services can be altered by the presence of crime in the territory, especially when it carries out its activities in areas such as trade and shops, transport and private households and business. An example is the closure of business or services on the territory, because of the extortion committed from local crime.

References

1. ↑ For further details see: Jon All, Measuring Progress – An Australian Travelogue, Journal of Official Statistics, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2005, pp. 727–746.
2. ↑ For further details see: Central Statistics Office Ireland, Standard Report on Methods and Quality, year 2007.
3. ↑ For further details see: Trasparency International, Corruption perceptions index (CPI). Methodology, year 2009.
4. ↑ For further details see: Eurostat, Crime and criminal justice, Introduction, April 2009.
5. ↑ For further details see: National Institute of Statistics (Istat), Regional socio-economic indicators, year 2010.
6. ↑ For further details see: Italian Ministry of Interior, Rapporto sulla criminalità in Italia. Analisi, Prevenzione, Contrasto, year 2009.
7. ↑ Increasing awareness in public of having to meet high standards of efficiency and fairness to the people, civil society and other institutions has resulted (in many national and international contexts) the need to create specialized technical structures on transparency , preventing and combating corruption and other forms of abuse perpetrated in the field of public administration. The establishment in Italy of Service Anti-Corruption and Transparency has as its goal to develop a systematic strategy for the prevention of different types of offense. This design takes shape in three parts: regular assessment of current legal instruments and administrative practices, identification of critical regulatory system verification of the vulnerability of government corruption and criminal conduct related to this.
8. ↑ For further details see: Transparency International, Progress Report: Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, year 2009.
9. ↑ For further details see: Raul Caruso, Public spending and organised crime in Italy. a panel-data analysis over the period 1997-2003; year 2007
10. ↑ For further details see: Riccardo Marselli - Marco Vannini, Quanto incide la disoccupazione sui tassi di criminalità?, Rivista di politica economica, October 1998.

See Also

• Security and Crime
• Security and Crime statistics
• Civic Engagement
• Indicators

External Links

• ISTAT

Further Reading