Criminology

3 semester credits. In the 20th century the international community has progressively elaborated rules and procedures to state that certain behaviors are crimes and to ensure violations are punished acts. The course will provide an introduction to the birth, evolution, and contemporary challenges of human rights, humanitarian law, and the international systems to maintain peace or restore justice. It aims at offering an overview of the history of human rights from their appearance on the international scene to contemporary debates. Students will analyze the process of definition of crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, war crimes and genocide, and the mechanisms to protect humanitarian law, from the emergency logic of Nuremberg Trials after World War II to the institutionalization of International Criminal Justice and the various categories of humanitarian interventions: peacekeeping, peace-making, and peace-enforcing.

3 semester credits. This course aims at providing instruments of knowledge, analysis, and evaluation on the main international organized crime organizations as the various types of Italian, Russian, and Albanian mafia, South American Cartels, Chinese Triads, and Japanese Yakuza. Topics cover the identification of their historical, economic, political, and social causes as well as the factors that have produced and supported them and their contemporary markets. Students analyze the range of instruments and strategies to fight against illegal activities. An important focus of the course is to present the specific structural and phenomenological aspects of international mafia and criminal organizations and their role in global economies and politics, as well as a glance at some of the cultural languages through which these organizations have been narrated and represented.

3 semester credits. This course examines the relationship between gender inequality and the legal system. Topics include abortion, marriage, divorce, custody, equal pay, sexual harassment, rape, pornography, and prostitution. Students are introduced to basic legal research tools, such as statutes, regulations, cases, and legal literature. Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice known throughout history and around the world through which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry. Specific case studies will be covered such as the "fuitina" in Italy, which was a widespread practice in Sicily and the south. In theory and in some cases, it was an agreed elopement between two youngsters, in practice it was often a forcible kidnapping and rape followed by a so-called "rehabilitating marriage" (matrimonio riparatore). In 1965, this custom was brought to national attention by the case of 17-year-old Franca Viola, abducted and raped by a local small-time criminal, with the assistance of a dozen of his friends. When she was returned to her family after a week, she refused to marry her abductor, contrary to local expectations. Her family courageously supported her decision, and suffered severe intimidation for their efforts. Ultimately, the kidnappers were arrested and the main perpetrator was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The exposure of this archaic and intransigent system of values and behavioral mores caused great national debate. A 1970 film, "La moglie più bella" (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano Damiani and starring Ornella Muti, is based on the case. Article 544 of the Italian Penal Code was amended only in 1981, when by law, rape could not be cancelled by marriage.