23. L'Italia è un paese sicuro?

Welcome to a new episode of Voice in Half an Hour, the dellavoce.info format designed to bring economic research into direct, video-based dialogue with industry experts. I'm Eleonora Trentini, I work at the dellavoce.info desk, and today we'll talk about crime, the stereotypes surrounding it, and how difficult it is to measure. [music] [music]

When we think of crime, our minds conjure up precise images, often linked to petty street crime or more media-rich crimes. We rarely visualize the concrete impact of tax fraud, corruption, or mafia infiltration on the legal economy, much less calculate its real costs to society. This bias stems from the fact that the most complex crimes, by definition, seek the shadows

, leaving us without immediate data and pushing us to make illicit assessments linked more to emotion, stereotypes, and the crimes trumpeted by the news and politicians than to assessments more grounded in the reality of the facts. It is precisely in this gap between public perception and actual numbers that the need for a

scientific approach arises, one that opens up more complex, but also truer, reflections. From the paradox of an Italy that feels unsafe, yet is among the safest countries in the world, to the link between immigration and illegality, to the silent presence of the mafia in the productive fabric of Northern Italy. Understanding how research can dismantle

these misconceptions and help design clear, far-sighted security policies is crucial. Today we'll discuss this with Paolo Pinotti, a professor at Bocconi University and an expert in the economics of crime. I would like to welcome Professor Paolo Pinotti. Thank you very much for accepting this interview. Good morning and thank you for the invitation.