Italian mafias, public procurement and public works in southern Italy

Abstract

Most of the studies conducted by prof. Ernesto Savona focused on organized crime. In particular, with respect to the Italian organized crime, his research interest has turned to the mechanisms of corruption and the infiltration of the mafia in public procurement. In a recent essay, Savona showed how, by applying the crime script techniques, it would be possible to adopt situational crime prevention measures for each stage of the public procurement process. This paper describes the strategies and techniques of infiltration in the public procurement (especially in the public works field) reconstructed from the analysis of several Italian judicial cases in South of Italy.