Parricide is a rare case of murder having a strong emotional impact on public opinion, especially when it is heinous and perpetrated by minors. Based on the analysis of the judicial files archived at the Minor Penal Institute "N. Fornelli" of Bari, the authors will report three impressive cases perpetrated by minors, by focusing on their emotional features. Differences between the crimes of parricide committed by adults and minors will be highlighted, by analyzing the peculiar relations between the problems underlying parricide and the role played by abuses and maltreatments experienced by minors perpetrating such crime. In particular, attention will be paid to the emotional processes aroused in minor parricide offenders.

Purpose: The article describes an evaluation study to test the effectiveness of “Storie in gioco” project (Stories in Play, Storie in gioco [SIG]), a dropout prevention intervention aimed to prevent early school leaving (ESL) in at risk students. Method: The research used a mixed-method approach: In the quantitative phase, a two-group pre-/postevaluation design involving 230 students was used to estimate SIG outcomes; in the qualitative step, stakeholders’ focus group discussions and interviews have been used to interpret results. Results: Even if SIG appears to impact scholastic self-esteem and peer relationships, no effect was found when a comparison group matched for baseline measures was used. Based on qualitative data, the article identifies mechanisms influencing SIG outcomes and provides key insights into improving it. Conclusions: The authors emphasize the priority to develop programs to reduce intergenerational transmission of educational poverty and express methodological and theoretical considerations regarding SIG effectiveness and ESL prevention interventions.

Objective: to investigate social sharing among 40 parents (20 couples) of hospitalized premature newborns, the social network of addressees with whom they shared their experience, the perceived benefits of this activity and the sources of individual differences. Methods: emotional reaction and attachment status were assessed within seven days and between 30 and 45 days from birth, respectively. At three months of infant's corrected age, parents completed a self-report assessing retrospectively their social sharing. Results: over 80% of the parents felt the need to share the event and actually did within one week; one's own partner was the most preferred addressee. The extent of father's social sharing was mainly related to the newborn's medical risk, while mother's to her own emotional reaction. Guilt and anger were found to lengthen the latency of sharing in mothers and fathers, respectively. Secure attachment status, compared to insecure ones, was found to be the most effective in promoting social sharing. Conclusions: These findings help to understand why parents differ from each other in their use of social support in the NICU; from a practical standpoint, they highlight important factors which require attention when implementing intervention program in the NICU directed to parents of premature newborns.

The evolutionary rationale offered by Bowlby implies that secure base relationships are common in child–caregiver dyads and thus, child secure behavior observable across diverse social contexts and cultures. This study offers a test of the universality hypothesis. Trained observers in nine countries used the Attachment Q-set to describe the organization of children’s behavior in naturalistic settings. Children (N = 547) were 10–72 months old. Child development experts (N = 81) from all countries provided definitions of optimal child secure base use. Findings indicate that children from all countries use their mother as a secure base. Children’s organization of secure base behavior was modestly related to each other both within and across countries. Experts’ descriptions of the optimally attached child were highly similar across cultures.

The authors of this study tackle the complex subject of parricide, which is a rare and often brutal form of homicide. Parricide has a high emotional impact on public opinion and on our collective imagination, especially in light of the fact that the perpetrators are often minors.. Three striking cases of parricide, taken from various documented sources and judicial files from the “N. Fornelli” Juvenile Penal Institute (Bari, Italy), are presented here. A review of the literature on the topic has revealed differences between parricides committed by adults and those committed by minors.. In the end, the complex issues underlying such an unusual crime are connected to abuses and maltreatment that minor perpetrators of parricide have suffered, especially the emotional processes that are activated.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the crime of stalking focusing on the victim. Starting from the analysis of published literature on stalking, we investigated 10 judiciary documentations on stalking cases in which an intimate relationship between the offender and the victim is present. The aim of this study is to identify the general traits of those which could be more susceptible to become a stalking victim. Finally, early experiences of abuse and maltreatment are identified as one of the main predictive risk factors for the propensity to start and abide in a violent intimate relationship. The role of relationship models and schemes in this propensity are also discussed.

Specific definitions aside, the behaviours that are generally associated with stalking may be classified into three categories of acts: 1) following (including showing up at the victim’s home and workplace, maintaining surveillance, and setting up coincidences); 2) communicating (by telephone, mail, leaving notes, graffiti, gifts, e-mail, and internet); including the ordering of goods and services in the victim’s name; 3) attacking or committing acts of violence (threats, direct harassment of the victim or of people close to the victim, damaging of personal goods, false accusations, physical or sexual violence). The work here presented proposes to find empirical confirmation of the data cited in the scientific literature with particular attention paid to the studies carried out by Mullen, Pathé, Purcell and Meloy who proposed a criminological diagnostic category for stalkers, delineating their behaviors.We go on to highlight patterns of behavior, as well as physical and social characteristics as postulated by these authors, and found in the molesters investigated in this study.

Through a multilevel approach, the text describes and analyzes a case of sexual abuse perpetrated and continued to the detriment of five children, came to our observation in the field expert, committed by a person who "impersonating" for a Catholic priest. The various aspects considered (psychiatric, psychological, forensic, ethno-anthropological and communicative) reveal dynamic situations and specific meanings, so that only the interaction between different but complementary perspectives can lead to a deeper understanding of the uniqueness of the case examined, illustrating in an exemplary way the dense web of disturbances caused by a double mockery of the trust which the primary relationship of human sociality.

The paper reviews the body of research testing the intergenerational transmission of attachment and the theoretical shift from the linear or mediation model (van IJzendoorn, 1995), according to which parental sensitivity is the main factor responsible for the correspondence between maternal and infant’s attachment, to the ecological model of the transmission of attachment (van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 1997). This latter model has prompted researchers, over time, to identify potential mediators, other than caregiver’s sensitivity, of the established association between parental representations regarding attachment and infant’s attachment, as well as the potential moderators of the transmission process. Each of these two research domains will be carefully explored; lastly new perspectives on the intergenerational transmission of attachment and relevant areas of research needing more investigation are highlighted.