The re-education of offenders through predictive algorithms and behavioural studies

In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled that a judge deciding a sentence may consult a risk assessment algorithm to measure the risk of recidivism. In the wake of that ruling, this article analyses a 2002 Italian case of murder with aggravating circumstances involving a mother, AMF, and her three-year-old son. Conflict between generations is a dramatic event that has been consistently repeated since time immemorial. Within this conflict, family feelings offer a molecular view of the relevant phenomena. In the case under review, the process followed by legal assessors and experts in profiling the personality of the convicted person will receive particular attention, as will the importance of certain standards of conduct and treatment that must be guaranteed to individuals, including those convicted of horrible crimes in today’s society. A commitment must be made to value and affirm the dignity of feelings and affective relationships, which are necessary to restore meaning to one’s own social affiliation in an attempt to reconcile the motivations of the heart with the love of reason.