Juvenile Justice Measures in Italy: the creation and development of Communities for Minors

The article aims to show how the juvenile penal system changed in the 20th century: from a previous system involving institutionalized treatment, linked to the principles of isolation and depersonalization, to the development of services based on the education, protection and promotion of the individual. It then reconstructs stages in the development of the institutions of Communities for Minors, with particular reference to the community of Bologna and Reggio Calabria, reconstructing their operations in the treatment of juvenile deviance and setting them in their social and political context both local and national. The article tries to deal with the complexity of the subject through a methodology which involves operating at several different levels: the scientific literature, the analysis of the national laws on the management and re-education of deviant minors and the documents produced by the Department of Justice for Minors.