Transcrime
Transcrime is a Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan and the University of Trento. The Centre, directed by Ernesto U. Savona, Professor of Criminology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, represents the multi-year union between experience and innovation in the field of criminological research.
Transcrime has offices in Milan and in Trento. In each office there is a team of researchers and secretaria/management personnel.
Transcrime also plays an important role in the support and development of education activities at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan. Its principal aim is to achieve a strong integration between scientific innovation and academic education. In particular, since the academic year 2005/06, Transcrime has been managing the MA programme in Applied Social Sciences (curriculum Crime&Tech, Crime Sciences and Technologies for Security, under the coordination of Professor Savona). In addition, Transcrime has been contributing to the development of the International Ph.D. programme in Criminology, coordinated by Professor Savona, which, at the moment, is the only third level academic course study dedicated to criminological issues in Italy.
Controversy
In 2015 a £400,000+ research project on organised crime's infiltration of legitimate businesses in Europe conducted by Transcrime on behalf of the European Commission came under intense public scrutiny when a member of the research team defined it "absolute garbage." The research methods utilized were labelled as "deeply flawed." Claims that Italian organized crime had infiltrated Scotland were later dismissed as "pure fantasy" as they were based on "one single case dated 2005." Police Scotland expressed concerns about the research methods, while an expert on mafias in the UK based at Bath University argued that "there's not enough information to say that Scotland is 'completely' infiltrated by Italian mafias" and that the final report of the project needed "more concrete evidence to support these claims." These controversial claims followed on from extensive media coverage received by Transcrime in 2014. Italian MEP Oreste Rossi claimed that Transcrime had found Aberdeen in Scotland to be a stronghold for the Camorra. The claims were hotly disputed by both Police Scotland and members of the Italian community in Aberdeen.
External links
- - Official website
- Università degli Studi di Trento
- Università del Sacro Cuore of Milan