Towards Città sicure? Political action and institutional conflict in contemporary preventive and safety policies in Italy

The article deals with the issue of the local safety policies in the Italian context and outlines how the origin and development of this approach to crime control is the result of some convergent processes and socio-political dynamics. Starting from the general and widespread move towards crime prevention and social reassurance, the article tries to show how these processes are influenced by local peculiarities and how the specific local contexts re-shape definitions, concepts, conflict and programmes. In the Italian case, the most influential factors are related to the conflict and negotiations between the national and local levels of state and governance and to the specific relationship established in the Italian context between the state and the civil society which continues to influence the kind of community involvement in crime control strategies.