Social demand or political strategy? The final report of the research project “The Determinants of Urban Security Policies” has been published
February 28th, 2026
The final report of the research project The Determinants of Urban Security Policies is now available.
The report focuses on the determinants of urban security policies (USP) in Italy and on their effects on citizens’ trust and institutional legitimacy. National political initiatives in the field of urban security—particularly legislative measures and political and media discourses—are typically presented as democratic responses by national governments to rising crime rates and concerns about crime and disorder. In particular, reassuring anxious communities through “law and order” approaches has been treated as a primary objective of public security policies, with the simultaneous aim of increasing citizens’ trust and the legitimacy of democratic institutions (Parliament, the government, and the apparatus of social control and criminal justice, including the police). Our research sought to problematize the first assumption—that USP initiatives constitute a democratic response by governments to bottom-up demands (the “democracy-at-work” model)—and to explore an entirely new area of inquiry: the relationship between USP and levels of legitimacy.
The research findings are presented in the document available in the attachment.
The two-year study was developed within the framework of the Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN) and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research through the European Union’s Next Generation EU programme, the project involved academic collaboration between two research units: the first, at the University of Milan, coordinated by Roberto Cornelli as Principal Investigator, Professor of Criminology in the “Cesare Beccaria” Department of Legal Sciences and Director of CRIMePO – Criminology and Public Policy Research Centre; the second, at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, coordinated by Rossella Selmini, Professor of Criminology in the Department of Legal Sciences.
For further information, please consult the webpage dedicated to the research project The Determinants of Urban Security Policies.