Giacomo Di Gennaro

This essay, with regard to the hypotheses which suggest that unemployment and crime are reciprocally related, on the grounds of an exploration of the available statistical data on the spreading of the juvenile delinquency in Italy, means to uphold the thesis that the institutional and social variables set, which interact with the economic conditions, sets out a more effective explanation of the juvenile delinquency, compared to that placing in the centre aspects connected with the unenployment and the economic precariousness. A distinction must be made between push factors for the criminal behaviour, like the failing of the educational institutions and the technical schools, and pull factors like crime subcultures associated with organized crime in South Italy regions. The combination of these factors, associated with the working poors and irregular labor supply, explains in South Italy the juvenile crime spreading.