In recent days, Casapesenna has once again been in the news for a series of firecracker explosions that have shattered the town's tranquility. Booms in the night, damaged shutters, and smashed windows: incidents that inevitably rekindle fear in a community that has previously experienced the brunt of organized crime.
In areas like the Aversa countryside, thoughts almost automatically turn to the Camorra. For years, this area had to live with a deep-rooted and violent criminal presence, and the collective memory remains inevitably marked by that era.
Precisely for this reason, however, according to criminologist Lucia Cerullo, it is necessary to avoid hasty conclusions and carefully interpret the criminal phenomena that are emerging.
"The investigation is still ongoing," the professor explains, "and at this stage, no evidence has emerged that definitively indicates an organized Camorra organization behind these incidents."
The transformation of criminal organizations
The criminologist emphasizes how in recent years many traditional criminal organizations have progressively modified their operational strategies.
"More and more often," he observes, "structured criminal groups are shifting their interests toward less visible and more profitable activities: contracts, services, investments, and infiltration of the legal economy."
A change that, according to the professor's analysis, has contributed to the progressive emptying of what was once called the "street Camorra".
In some contexts, in fact, these spaces are occupied by smaller and less structured groups seeking to establish themselves in the territory.
"It is in this scenario," Cerullo continues, "that a dynamic increasingly observed in criminological studies takes place: widespread crime that imitates the codes of the Camorra."
The roar as a message
According to the criminologist's analysis, the use of firecrackers in these cases has above all a symbolic value.
"It's not so much an instrument of destruction," he says, "as a message. It serves to make noise, to raise alarm, to leave a visible mark."
The roar in the night thus becomes a form of communication: someone wants to demonstrate that they can instill fear.
Very often, incidents of this type are not traced back to structured mafia organizations, but to groups linked to illegal street economies, such as drug trafficking or other minor criminal activities.
"This," Cerullo explains, "is a different kind of crime than the one historically known in these areas: less organized, less stable, but capable of using spectacular gestures to build a reputation. In other words, imitating the Camorra's language to appear Camorra."
The risk of a wrong narrative
The teacher also invites students to reflect on the way these episodes are told.
"When every violent act is immediately interpreted as a return of the clans," he observes, "we risk fueling a narrative that doesn't always correspond to the reality of contemporary criminal transformations."
According to the criminologist, there is also a further risk: automatically attributing these actions to large-scale organized crime could paradoxically strengthen the very people who commit them.
"Labeling these groups mafia," he concludes, "often means granting them the criminal prestige they're trying to gain."
The path to redemption in the Aversa countryside
In recent years, Cerullo emphasizes, areas like Casapesenna and the Aversa countryside have undergone significant change thanks to judicial interventions, institutional efforts, and the commitment of civil society.
According to the criminologist, reducing every episode of violence to a presumed return of the past risks obscuring this process and preventing a correct understanding of the new forms of deviance that today generate insecurity.
"A community," he concludes, "protects its safety not only through investigations and arrests, but also through the ability to interpret reality without being swayed by fear."
Lucia Cerulo* (teacher and criminologist)
It seems to me that the matter was written well but also poorly: people are afraid and feel shaken, but you can't immediately say it's the Camorra. The institutions should do more checks and people talk too much without knowing the facts, this is confusing.