Measuring citizen’s requests for economic help: exploring potential indicators for measuring usury

• In Event: Poverty and Structural Inequalities Panel

Abstract

Measuring and monitoring the phenomenon of usury is not an easy task. Its illegal nature and the moneylender-borrower relationship hamper the reporting behavior of the victims, thus resulting in an underestimated phenomenon. As a matter of fact, available criminal justice statistics, while informing more on the judiciary countermeasures implemented against it, do not provide a full and comprehensive informative framework for a deeper understanding of its causes, dynamics and socio-economic impact acting both at micro and macro-level. In this regard, there is a need to study the phenomenon adopting a multidisciplinary approach, which combines the legal, economic and sociological perspectives. In order to strengthen the methodological and information tools for the study of the phenomenon of usury, Istat – within the framework of the National Observatory against Usury and the related Statistical Group established at the Office of the Government Commissioner for the coordination of anti-racketeering and anti-usury initiatives – has developed a dedicated survey module for the collection of data on the citizens’ requests for economic help. In this regard, the objective of the survey was that of identifying the number of citizens who have asked for a loan or financial help and have turned to different subjects, both formal and informal, whether they had to pay an interest rate and its amount, as well as citizen’s experiences of violence in this context. The aim of the paper is thus that of 1) presenting the methodological approach used; 2) discussing the main results and 3) identifying areas of future work for the official statistics.

Authors

• Francesco Gosetti, Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)

• Maria Giuseppina Muratore, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica of Italy (ISTAT)