What About Restorative Justice Practices in Italy After the EU Directive 29/2012? A Long Story of Cultural Difficulties and Misunderstanding

Abstract

While in more recent years the attention for victims of crime in Italy has known an increasing (but often ambivalent in contents and effectiveness) consideration on political agenda and media interest, the concrete opportunity to intervene in the criminal justice system – and on the procedural criminal scene - is still partial and in some cases actually lacking. In particular, some obstacles of different nature still remain with regards to the implementation of restorative justice practices despite the spread consideration they benefit among professionals and, above all, the almost numerous laws promulgated on this matter also before the EU Directive 29/2012 (see: art. 47 of the Italian Penitentiary Code in 1975; art. 28 of the Juvenile Criminal Procedural Code in 1988; Law No. 274/2000 on the penal competences of the “Judge of the Peace”; and again: Law No. 67/2014 on probation in the adult criminal justice system; Law No. 212/2015 for the implementation of the EU Directive; Law No. 103/2017 introducing changes on Penal, Procedural and Penitentiary Codes).

The contribution aims to explore the reasons why the building of a “real” culture for all  victims and the implementation of the restorative justice paradigm still encounter difficulties and misunderstanding, also taking into consideration the point of view of judges and lawyers, as well as the perception of victims of crime and the Italian public opinion.