Security policies in Italy and Spain: Just a maquillage-effect?

• In Event: 600 - Section on Crime, Law and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Global Criminology and International Law

Abstract

The present article aims at outlining the way security matters are articulated and branch off within several social contexts. Starting from a theoretical and cognitive support, as well as a political-historical reconstruction, it gets to identify how and to what extent security policies have affected the history of two European countries: Italy and Spain. After an introduction presenting the main indicators of the work carried out, among which security distribution, localization of power and its social acceptance are pointed out, the following paragraphs describe how and to what extent these strategies enforced in Spain and Italy reveal a different setting up based on the influence of several social variables. The underlying hypothesis is that security represents a predominant category, and its governance is applied differently depending on the player involved (i.e.: national bodies or local authorities). Alternative models to the traditional justice system have been applied, with different outcomes; what the countries at issue have in common is the bond between community support and the new technological equipment able to reduce the widespread sense of insecurity. The different levels of security, delegated to the several police forces throughout the territory, have to cooperate from a joint and integrated perspective in order to reach an all-round security level.
From this point of view, participated security stands as a possible solution to those problems which are typical of the two above-mentioned countries.

Author

• Veronica Moretti, University of Bologna