Whose Law? Whose Order? of Crime and Punishment in Modern Times

Abstract

"The response by Italian national and local authorities to the organized crime problem has changed little in the past few years. Already by 1988 the megatrials were becoming a thing of the past and by 1991 they ended in mass acquittals. The Palermo and Catania communes have ceased to be —-as they appeared in 1988— vital points in the antimafia campaign and the people and coalitions that transformed those communes into antimafia outposts are in disarray. While the former DC mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, continues his antimafia campaign as a leader of the Network movement (Rete) and as Sicilian regional deputy, his former Catania counterpart, Republican Enzo Bianco, is struggling to shore up his moribund party in Sicily. Crime statistics are up. Even by the standards of Italy's crime-hardened South, 1990 and 1991 were exceptional blood-soaked years in Calabria, Sicily and Campania. In his traditional end of the year message, the president of the Republic expressed the hope that 1991 would the be year of justice."