The brutal multiple murder of Novi Ligure occurred between 8,30 and 9 pm, on Wednesday 21^st February, 2001 when Susy Cassini De Nardo and her twelve-year-old son Gianluca returned home and were stabbed to death, ninety-seven times to be precise. Inquiries carried out by investigators lead unpredictably to sixteen-year-old Erika, the De Nardo’s firstborn child, who at first claimed to have escaped the massacre, the work of strangers, and to her seventeen-year-old boyfriend Omar Fasaro.

There were gaps and contradictions in Erika’s story which made the investigators suspicious: doors and windows showed no signs of forced entry; the escape route Erika said she used was the most difficult. Moreover, the youth said she escaped in her bare feet which were dirtied with blood, traces of blood which were never found. The footprints were those of a person who was walking, not someone who was escaping frantic with fear. The De Nardo’s two guard dogs didn’t bark and didn’t show signs of narcosis. Erika spoke of two attackers and when presented with a series of photographs of suspected criminals, she indicated without hesitation the face of an Albanian, who unfortunately for her, when checked out by the police, turned out to have a cast-iron alibi. A long time - too much - passed between the murders and when the alarm was given to the neighbours. It is suspected that part of this time was used to eliminate traces and fingerprints.

These suppositions were confirmed by the interception of Erika’s mobile phone. Investigators took her and her boyfriend to look over the house in the hope that they would break down at the scene of the crime and that what they said would be recorded.

Friday 23^rd February an order of provisional arrest was executed for Erika and her boyfriend Omar. They were both accused of premeditated multiple murder.

Their detention has been prolonged to November 22^nd by Preliminary Investigation Magistrate Cesare Castellani of the juvenile court of Turin. The experts of the Preliminary Investigation Magistrate defined the two youths as able to understand and will.

Erika and Omar will stay respectively in the Juvenile detention centre of Milan and Turin, even though the Magistrate has yet to decide whether to concede alternative custody, perhaps in a rehabilitation centre.

Introduction

The empirical investigation summarized here aimed to study the perception and the interpretation shared by mass media about the so-called "Novi Ligure murder". This crime, for its cruelty, its atypical protagonist (a minor of good family), and for the infringement of primitive taboos (matricide and fratricide) has caused prolonged and intense media interest.

The setting up of a web-site called ‘erikatiamo’ (i.e.: Erika, I love you), subsequently closed down by the intervention of the magistracy, shows the strong impact such a fact can have in some areas of public opinion.

Female deviance and juvenile delinquency have some characteristics in common; both in fact are often considered residual categories, particular aspects of the larger sphere of deviance in general; in the past both have benefited from concessions of extenuating circumstance due to a structurally reduced "capacity to understand and will": minors because of their age and women because of biological conditions (Ortu, 1981, Castan, 1995). Even if currently such a basis is opportunely contested, nevertheless it must be said that the female deviant and the juvenile delinquent are equally representative, in the general sense, of the "weaker" elements of society (Canosa, 1978; Tani, 1998).

A female juvenile offender as protagonist of the Novi Ligure crime is striking to the collective imagination. The young murderer also breaks the mould by infringing on the commonly accepted stereotype of the female gender being "soft-hearted" (Farge, 1995).

But in the field of juvenile delinquency the law professional must be able to distance itself from the short-circuit of public opinion and mass media (although it’s not easy to establish if the former determines the latter or vice versa), trying to avoid clichés and ideological attitudes, both inappropriate when dealing with juvenile crime. (Cuomo, 1981; De Leo, 1996a).

Aim of the present study was to try to discover stereotypes and ideological attitudes trough the analysis of the texts produced by mass media about the emblematic ‘Novi Ligure murder’.

Method

The research was conducted by analysing the headlines and the texts regarding the crime of Novi Ligure, covering, for a period of three months after the event, all types of media (daily newspapers, weekly magazines, television, internet).

The newspapers scrutinized were La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera, as the two major organs of the national press. In spite of having slightly different political and cultural profiles, they share as target a similar reader in terms of social class, although geographically different. In some instances, the local paper La Sicilia was taken into consideration.

Among the weeklies, apart from the supplements relative to the two newspapers (Il Venerdi and D, which are supplements of La Repubblica, Sette and Io Donna, from Il Corriere della Sera), L’Espresso and Grazia, a woman’s magazine, were taken into consideration, both aimed at the reader from middle and higher social levels.

The opinions expressed by specialists (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists) and journalists, in the various forms of media under observation, were collected in files, grouped in different subject headings and analysed using the methodology of the content analysis.

The following main categories were taken into account: attributions of causality, attributions of responsibility and forecasts for a suitable punishment for the two young murderers.

Analysis of data

From the analysis of data gathered, some recurrent attributions for the motivation of the crime emerged, which are listed here in order of decreasing frequency (see Chart I): lack of moral values, emotional immaturity, lack of communication between parents and children, atavistic homicidal instinct, psychopathology, lack of an authoritative parental figure, influence of group (peer pressure), influence of the media.

Only a very small percentage of subjects indicated ‘existential boredom’, and only one case ‘jealousy’.

CHART I

The crime perpetrated in Novi Ligure brought into discussion the concept itself of family, its role in the present cultural phase, the possibility of bringing children up "correctly", with the right balance between permissive and punitive educational models, the role of modern society and the materialistic values it upholds, and the strong influence of the media. The media search for a motive of a violent act destabilizing social surety, seek for a precise place or person or thing on which to lay the blame in order to rationalize what happened and to reassure the public opinion.

The opinions of both experts and laymen confirm how difficult it is to study and explain juvenile delinquency, a multidimensional and changing reality, as a unitary phenomenon (De Leo & Patrizi, 1992; Gulotta, 2000).

Many of the statements collected and examined are marked by different methodologies and approaches to the event, and to diverse paradigms of analysis. Some exemplar texts are reported.

Gianna Schelotto, psychologist, wrote on March 24^th, 2001 in the Corriere della Sera: «This crime is not about emotional illiteracy, or the inability to identify oneself with the feelings of others, indeed, it’s the contrary: it is the excess of emotions, the inability to control them. The inability to deal with frustration and economic stability have produced a psychological illness, weakness. We are no longer used to dealing with difficulties or tension. Homicide within the family reminds us of Oedipus, Cain, of the history of man, of something archaic which belongs to us, of jealousy, envy and of the violence which are all part of human nature.»

The columnist Eugenio Scalfari stated in La Repubblica of February 25^th, 2001:

«A desert of feeling and mental obscurity: the mind no longer masters emotions, the emotions don’t communicate with the mind, the fleeting happiness of the moment is defended, imposed with violence against anyone who opposes. Who can sustain that it is only about private dramas which don’t concern anyone other than the protagonists? Don’t you see that that violence is spreading everywhere? ... Mental obscurity, lives lived and burnt out moment by moment, desert of the soul, excitement instead of feelings, cunning instead of intelligence, appetite instead of passion: this multitude of individuals is transforming society into an irresponsible, solitary folly. Private dramas and collective irresponsibility have the same origin, therefore the tragedy of Novi Ligure is a private drama with public relevance. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief thinking that fear doesn’t concern you, it concerns us a great deal, much more than the Albanian you are using as a means of distancing the fatigue of responsibility.»

Regarding the demand for justice, public opinion is divided and shifts between indulgence (a very small minority) and punishment.

CHART II

Significantly, the first opinion is sustained by the ‘experts’, for example Livia Pomodoro, president of the juvenile court of Milan, in the Corriere della Sera of February 24^th, 2001, said: «The way to follow is not that of tougher sentences for minors, it would do no good giving longer sentences or to leave them in prison instead of imposing alternative measures. An equation between crime and reclusion does not exist and I believe it never will."

In more frequent cases, both journalists and experts require harder and more adequate sentences are required due to the brutality of the crime committed.

Miriam Mafai in Grazia of March 9^th, 2001 wrote: «A fair sentence and a reasonable detention is necessary, precisely to help them out of the hypothetical condition of unreality in which perhaps they have lived in until today, to help them enter into the world of reality in which every action corresponds to a consequence, in the world of individual responsibility»

Fulvio Scaparro, psychotherapist, in Corriere della Sera of March 29^th, 2001 states: «It cannot be tolerated that, as often happens, youths responsible of such serious crimes end up, after shortened sentences, various concessions and reductions, no obligation of compensation and possible judicial pardon, coming out paying a risible price. Those same youths who are judged and adulated as mature, responsible and able to choose when taken into consideration as consumers are instead treated as irresponsible and unable to distinguish between right and wrong when they are involved in some serious crime. I wonder if it is possible to recover a youth to whom we don’t recognise the responsibility for that which he has done. The particular protection of youths provided for by our penal code, the aim of social recovery become empty words if that protection and that recovery are not based on the recognition of responsibility for acts committed, on the recognition and the sanctions for the transgression done, and above all on the awareness of the consequences of the crime. A juridical order which does not take into consideration in the first place the victim, lays down the basis for further social tension, general mistrust in the institutions and aids the spreading of the demand for forms of primitive justice.»

In reality, as is well known, the purpose of a punishment is two-fold. On the one hand it acts as stimulation and deterrent for the deviant behavior and on the other it is a physical condition which makes it impossible for the delinquent to do harm.

The concept of punishment as restoration of public order and as ‘salvation’ and rehabilitation of the offender, are based on a plan of ideals and principles, while the concept of punishment as a defence for citizens, which underlines the social function of sanctions, is based on a concrete plan. Public opinion regarding juvenile delinquency, anyway it is expressed, shows a disorientating confusion between prevention, sanctions, repression, aims of social assistance and psychological treatment. (Castiglioni, 1998)

At the present, italian law is grounded on a "theory of minimal intervention", which naturally does not propose abolishing penal sanctions, but tries to reduce the length of prison sentences, enhancing rehabilitative alternatives.

For juvenile offenders, and above all to support the detention with re-educational measures characterised by paying attention to the personality of the minor in its/her developmental phases, aimed at an active mending of behaviors according to a new concept of "responsibility" which is outlined in the most recent studies (De Leo, 1996b).

In the case of the ‘Novi Ligure murder’, such a formulation seems not to be agreed with by the majority of the opinions examined, including some coming by ‘experts’. The particular atrocity of this case – activating emotional components of evaluation – has insured that the current concept of ‘minimal intervention’ proves to be inadequate and a sanction inspired almost exclusively on a concept of repression and punishment is being demanded. This request is aimed at reassuring the social conscience rather than giving an effective response at a juridical–institutional level, using an appropriate methodology of treatment.

However, can the tidal wave of emotion, aroused by the type of offence and by the characteristics of the offender, sweep away the foundations of law in a civil society, which see the sentencing as a way to make the offender more aware and responsible, rather than to persecute his/her annihilation?

References

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Castiglioni, C., La pena in filosofia, in Quadrio A., Colucci F. (a cura di) Bei delitti e belle pene. Devianza, colpa e punizione, per una lettura psicosociale, Unicopli, Milano 1988

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