Beyond Communities and Securitarianism: Plural Security in Central Italy

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on Policing and Criminalisation

Abstract

Drawing on urban security research in central Italy, we develop the theoretical foundations for overcoming the military and centralised policing models typical of continental states. The data collected by the researchers show how in Umbria effective crime, both micro and macro, has recorded a decline in recent years, on the other hand the public continues to represent itself and to represent the reality it lives in as problematic and dangerous, which would need to be addressed through the implementation of repressive interventions, i.e. based on the combination of law and order, to be implemented to the detriment of the most marginal social groups and individuals. It is possible to elaborate an alternative solution, consisting in the attempt to articulate, as has been attempted in Umbria, a plural security. Rather than leaving the solution of security issues to the police alone, it is a matter of trying to introduce, also in Italy, a plural security model, which follows the community policing model implemented in Anglo-Saxon contexts. Starting from the assumption that policing does not only refer to the action of the forces of order, but to the definition of public order practices through the involvement of citizens, a plurality of actors are involved in the elaboration of shared strategies: scholars, associations, volunteers, ordinary citizens, social services, are called upon to make the effort to develop and implement a local security policy that meets the expectations of all actors, including victims, for whom a compensation program is envisaged, and migrants, a in favor of which integration projects are launched.

Authors

• Antonino Azzarà, University of Roma Tre

• Vincenzo Scalia, Universita' di Firenze