Intra-family mafia pedagogy: the role of juvenile justice and social work in Italy

The sociological and legal literature on the subject of mafia acculturation within the family has repeatedly urged the intervention of the institutions to operate both in the social field, through adequate support networks, and in the judicial field, through measures against the so-called ‘children of the mafia’ who, from an early age, become the recipients of a mafia pedagogy, aimed, over time, at preparing them for anti-legal and anti-social conducts and which denies them, in fact, the achievement of an existential and working autonomy with the aim of freeing them from the criminal culture. This study, therefore, after investigating the mechanisms of such acculturation, the deviant perspectives, the role of the Social Services, the quality of the disvalues imparted and oriented towards the demolition of the culture of democracy, the breaking of laws, and the failure to respect social values and norms, has also attempted to verify the possibility of constructing a truly effective legal, organizational and social model that would address – from a systematic perspective – the phenomenon of the involvement of minors in criminal associations and the suggestion exerted by certain imposed intra-family mafia cultural models, as well as the tools to protect the fundamental right of the minor to receive a responsible upbringing, consistent with constitutional values and civil coexistence, which can only be achieved through a process of harmonization of the civil law regulations governing parental responsibility and parental authority proceedings.