Adolescence as a “Radical” Age and Prevention of Violent Radicalisation: A Qualitative Study of Operators of a Juvenile Penal Circuit in Italy

Abstract

In the scientific community, the topic of the risk of violent radicalisation within the juvenile penal circuit is infrequently explored compared to the attention devoted to the adult prison population or to other areas of social and educational intervention. This article presents some results of a study conducted, within the framework of a European project led by the Italian Ministry of Justice, at some institutions of the juvenile penal circuit in Italy, with the involvement of staff working at the Offices of Social Services for Minors (USSM), the Juvenile Penal Institutes (IPM), and the reception communities of two Italian regions (North and South). The article aims to explore the viewpoint of the professionals working in these facilities, analysing their perceptions and experiences regarding the radicalisation of young people in the penal circuit. This concept is understood both in a broader sense, evoking the characteristics of adolescence, as experienced by the population in their charge, and also in the more specific sense of religious radicalisation and its possible violent outcomes. The article shows how, when referring to the task of detecting possible signs of (violent) radicalisation in the behaviour of young people, penal-circuit professionals highlight the difficulties and risks they encounter in the attempt to reconcile educational and supervisory tasks. The personal and social characteristics of the population under their care and the more specific characteristics of the adolescent phase, in fact, seem to constitute factors that make the process of the detection of radicalisation more complex, with the risk of increasing the labelling and stigmatisation of these young offenders, thus, paradoxically, favouring outcomes that would be desirable to prevent.