ALTERNATIVE AL CARCERE, ESECUZIONE DELLA PENA NELLA COMUNITÀ E IMPATTO SULLA RECIDIVA

The thesis critically examines the system of alternatives to imprisonment in Italy, focusing in particular on the modalities of sentence execution within the community and on the impact of non-custodial sanctions on recidivism rates. Starting from the structural and functional crisis of the prison system – characterized by chronic overcrowding, poor rehabilitative efficiency, and conditions often detrimental to human dignity –, the research investigates the actual capacity of community-based sanctions to fulfill the constitutional aim of rehabilitating the offender, using the reduction of reoffending rates as a benchmark. Through an interdisciplinary approach and a comparison with the French experience, the study highlights the need to construct individualized sanctioning paths capable of identifying and addressing the specific risk factors related to each offender, as the most effective strategy to ensure the punitive response to crime is also effective in preventing recidivism. Furthermore, a methodological model for the empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of different sanctioning modalities is developed. The conclusions outline the prospect of a reformed punitive system praeter carcerem founded on the centrality of the rehabilitative function, the principle of proportionality, and the use of prison as an extrema ratio, within a framework of criminal justice genuinely oriented toward social reintegration.