PUBLICATION
R. Cornelli (2025), The protection of authority as central axis of Italian criminal Policy
October 1st, 2025
What political-criminal urgency underlies and justifies the enactment of yet another security package? An analysis of the provisions contained in Decree-Law No. 48 of 2025 reveals a general intensification of punitive measures, extending to include even non-violent forms of dissent. For the first time, however, this repressive turn is coupled with measures explicitly aimed at safeguarding police officers in the exercise of theirduties. In this context, the protection of authority - addressed in more than one-third of the legislative text - emerges as the central axis of the entire package and a defining feature of a criminal policy that risks destabilizing the democratic balance between authority and individual freedoms.