Crescere in terre di mafia

As a theoretical extension of other previous studies, this work represents an improve-ment of the notions about the relationship between adolescence and Mafia. The research has been aiming at exploring teenagers’ universe within specific social contexts where the presence of criminal organizations is significant, focusing the attention on the modalities through which evolutionary tasks are coped with in contexts with high Mafia density and often characterized by a perception of social space which makes personal, financial and political development problematic. The research has involved 93 teenagers who live in southern regions where the presence of Mafia organizations (Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra) is widespread. Six focus groups have been carried out, audio recorded and then transcribed. Verbalizations have been analyzed through appropriate qualitative grids which allowed detecting three thematic macro-areas: representations of the phenomenon of Mafia, emotions connected to it and plan-ning skills. The qualitative analysis of transcriptions points out that the presence of Mafia or-ganizations, the contiguity between legal and illegal symbolic-cultural codes, the commonality of belonging matrices, sharing the same symbolic and social spaces are all elements which vio-lently enter these teenagers’ identification and release paths, deeply influencing them.