Controlling force? A Study on the Accountability of the Italian Police Forces

• In Event: Police and social change in Italy: empirical perspectives

Abstract

The paper presents the findings of an empirical study on the functioning of police accountability mechanisms in Italy, with particular focus on the role of disciplinary and judicial instruments in determining individual officers’ responsibility in cases of misconduct. The study highlights how both mechanisms exhibit significant shortcomings that limit their effectiveness in preventing and sanctioning improper conduct. The disciplinary system, instead of functioning as an effective means of control, appears to primarily serve to safeguard the internal cohesion of police forces. Meanwhile, criminal law mechanisms fail to provide a strong deterrent effect, hindered by both substantive and procedural challenges. Research suggests that an approach to police misconduct based solely on punitive measures—disciplinary or criminal—tends to reinforce an individualized and narrow view of critical incidents, framing them as the result of moral or factual errors by individual officers, rather than as the product of organizational factors. A punitive approach, moreover, ends up fostering a defensive attitude among police officers, contributing to the spread of a professional culture that tolerates and covers up incidents of misconduct.

Authors

• Carlo Caprioglio, University of Bari

• Valerio Pascali, University of Bari

• Giuseppe Campesi, University of Bari ‘Aldo Moro’