The State's role in shaping deviant identities: A psycho-anthropological critique of intergenerational criminalisation

• In Event: Intergenerational Criminology, Panel 1. Family and Intergenerational Perspectives

Abstract

What role does the State play with communities it doesn't deem compliant with its laws and with individuals belonging to them regardless of their behavior? It's believed that the state's categorization of crime influences family perception, with consequences on the intergenerational transmission of “criminal behaviors”. State procedures reserved for these individuals often involve trauma due to the measures implemented in crime suppression, such as the pursuit and capture of offenders, the definition within the judicial process, and social interpretation, including through media. Particularly in involved children, these traumas reinforce identifications, driven by protection instinct and fear, with family members through categories defined by the State. Hence, the significance of the state's definition in shaping identities within contexts of criminalization and suppression enter the intimate sphere of the family. These defining mechanisms contribute to internalizing opposition to the State and to the development of “deviant” mentalities and cultures. Institutions thus play a key role in recognizing and institutionalizing criminal identities, while family narratives influence individual identity construction. With this paper, we are interested in analysing these two interlocking mechanisms that we identify in creating this reality.
Through a collaborative psycho-anthropological approach, we present several specific cases encountered in research conducted in recent years in the prisons of the city of Naples and in neighborhoods with high criminal density that are reported to illustrate recurring mechanisms in the establishment of the criminal class in Southern Italy. Moving away from the Lombrosian tendencies that still permeate Italian policies, we bring back the sentiment of state abandonment as a key element in the intergenerational “transmission of crime”. A critical approach to the complex Neapolitan context provides a strong basis for the advocation of prevention and rehabilitation strategies that could contribute to the reduction of (intergenerational) recidivism.

Authors

• Sandra Cavaliere, Phd student presso il Dipartimento di Salute Mentale e Medicina Preventiva Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli

• Chiara Feliciani, PhD at the Graduate Institute of International Development Studies of Geneva