The "young" research in Italy

In Italy, less money is spent on research than in other countries. According to recent data, Italy devotes 1.03% of its GNP to scientific research, compared with Germany’s 2.32%, France’s 2.42%, the United States’ 2.77% and Japan’s 2.91%. In our discipline as in all others, empirical research calls for both time and money. This is why it is often young students, working under the supervision of others more expert than they, who are entrusted with research tasks in the initial phase of their careers. However, young people are often marginalized within the ambit of conventions and scientific journals, perhaps reflecting the prevailing opinion of their elders that you can’t have it all - youth and exposure. To take stock of this situation, and also to attempt to rectify it, on November 20, 1999 we organized a convention on the theme The psyche and the law: results of young researchers , which was held at Turin’s Cospes center. The following research papers were either presented on that occasion, or were still in their elaboration phase. Others will appear in future issues of Psicologia e Giustizia.

Guglielmo Gulotta