Youth bands: between theories of the past and presence in modern society. The analysis of the phenomenon in official statistics.

The research carried out to date on the subject of youth gangs have studied the phenomenon from different and sometimes radically opposite angles. The “gangs”, moreover, have taken on characteristics and reasons to be peculiar over time and space. It is thus impossible to trace the identikit of an immanent and hegemonic band model, and any attempt to do so can only prove to be partial and reductive. Even the denomination is particularly controversial: the term gang, until now used predominantly by classical American criminology, is now more than ever imbued with a securitized and criminalizing rhetoric. The objective of this work is to develop an integrated analysis on minors reported to the Public Prosecutors at the Juvenile Courts based on the latest ISTAT data. The surveys carried out by ISTAT on the data of the judicial offices complete the system of juvenile criminal detections allowing to estimate, as far as possible, the total of the phenomenon of deviant youths included in groups. The ISTAT surveys allow an excellent description of the phenomenon of group juvenile crime and an element of comparison for the planning of active law enforcement policies. Data from Juvenile Justice Offices contradict many of the clichés about adolescents. It is not true that criminal activity has increased, it is not true that it is connected with foreign minors. On the contrary, the criminal activity is in decline both at the child and adult level, as well as the number of foreigners involved.