Italian
ITALY. Taking a look at the headlines of newspapers, scrolling through digital posts, and listening to various television programs, it is increasingly likely to come across news reporting on an alarming phenomenon that seems to be spreading rapidly in Italian territory, identified by the term babygang.
The gang can be defined as “an interstitial group originally spontaneously formed and then integrated through conflict. It is characterized by the following types of behavior: face-to-face relationship, hits and physical clashes, movements through space as a compact group, conflict and planning. The result of this collective behavior is the development of a tradition, an internal structure not dictated by reflection, esprit de corps, solidarity, morality, group awareness and attachment to a territory.”
This increase in media attention, especially during and following the Covid-19 pandemic, is only partially due to the spread of a new sensitivity; the main cause is the actual increase in episodes of petty crime involving very young people. The restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the Coronavirus have had a strong impact on the lives of young people, negatively affecting their personal well-being. In addition to the phenomenon of youth gangs, there is a significant increase in situations of marginalization, psychological distress, and social exclusion which literature identifies as risk factors for deviant and antisocial behaviors.
The key to overcoming such an outcome certainly lies in prevention, which in this case more than ever rhymes with education. The vulnerability of many adolescents to deviant phenomena is indeed connected to the lack of an educational process that involves and enhances the emotional and relational dimensions.
The phenomenon highlights the need for an integrated approach to “youth deviance” that takes into account familial, social, anthropological, and psychopathological aspects. An effective prevention strategy for this form of “deviance” would require institutions to promote educational, social, cultural, sports, and religious initiatives, education on “legality,” as well as occupational prospects, creating “orientation networks” to guide minors towards civic engagement that exerts an attractive force. In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the majority of young people integrate into various aspects of society; unfortunately, for those who choose “deviance,” especially criminal, it is regrettable to define them as “burnt youth.”
From the perspective of developmental psychology, adolescence is the middle age dominated by transformation and change, etymologically indicating the passage from childhood to adulthood. It is a “season” of life characterized by an overwhelming emotional storm, excessive confidence in one’s abilities, desire to push boundaries by experimenting with transgression of norms, ethics, and social norms. The journey accompanying the construction of one’s identity involves various experiences intertwining excesses, grand idealisms, infinite sadness, destructive and creative anger, goodbyes, and new beginnings.
At the threshold of puberty, the changing body gradually taking on adult features, the irresistible drives that lead adolescents to separate and move away from the “nest” to get closer to their peer group, the loss of the fairy-tale world of childhood, and the definition of their own identity taking shape through the eyes of others, finding in the sense of belonging to the group a solid structure on which to base self-esteem, seeming to guarantee social inclusion. The rebellious tendencies clash with the difficulties faced by adults, who increasingly offer complacent and indulgent educational models characterized by an inability to set limits; the stimuli captured from social media and virtual reality, lacking ethical and moral values and displaying icons based on appearance, in accordance with an individualistic and utilitarian society, and on social advantage gained through the use of violence, without any perception of the disvalue of their actions, tend to shape the minor seeking recognition, belonging, and identity.
And in this vortex that sucks in the adolescent, a combination of genetic, psychological, social, family, cultural, and economic factors come into play, creating a fertile ground for manifesting psychopathological pictures and serious situations of discomfort, igniting in the young person a fire that feeds on itself with violence and crime along a continuum of severity that leads the adolescent to seek refuge, sometimes finding in crime the value of Self.
In light of the recent resurgence of some criminal phenomena involving young people, as we mentioned at the beginning of this reflection, addressing the issue requires a joint and synergistic intervention strategy by all stakeholders of civil society, both institutional and non-institutional, in order to eradicate any factor that contributes to fueling the conditions for the development of juvenile delinquency, seeking to involve primarily families, which constitute the “conditioning” humus in which the personality of the minor develops, representing the social aggregation that primarily has the primary task of correcting deviant behaviors of minors.
An effective strategy for preventing juvenile delinquency requires, in particular, the promotion by all the involved institutions of educational, social, cultural, sports, and religious initiatives, as well as education on legality aimed at minors, with the aim of directing them towards forms of engagement that divert them from criminal contexts. Furthermore, minors are not always able to assess the negative value of their behaviors and weigh their consequences, even on a legal level, often underestimating the material and psychological harm caused to the victims of their delinquent conduct.
