Potere criminale e pratiche di assoggettamento violenze, coercizione e resistenza nel fenomeno della tratta delle donne nigeriane

Criminal power and practices of subjection: Violence, coercion, and resistance in the trafficking of Nigerian women. This article proposes a reflection on the Mafia power’s characteristics and peculiarities compared to other forms of criminal power, starting from the results of a field research carried out between 2018 and 2022 in Milan, Naples and Castel Volturno, aimed at exploring the Nigerian criminal system involved in the international human trafficking. The analysis focuses not only on the dimension of violence and the forms of subjugation, but also of subjectivation and resistance, in relation to which women involved in circuits are the protagonists. On the one hand, the forms of physical and psychological violence acted by the Nigerian criminal groups examined on the countrywomen trafficked and exploited in the Italian sex markets are investigated. On the other hand, the bureaucratic and structural practices of violence often found within the Italian reception system, at times used strategically by the criminal networks themselves (i.e., political asylum) and the sometimes perverse effects of institutional action on the migration and life paths of the women involved, are highlighted.