The perception of Nigerian criminality in Italy: a comparison between academic sources and journalistic representations

Abstract

In the present article, forms and contents of the current perception of Nigerian criminality in Italy are investigated. The sources considered are investigative, academic and journalistic. Some recurring aspects in the representation of the phenomenon appear from the analysis of the sources: hard ethnicization of Nigerian criminality, strong emphasis on the magic, religious and esoteric aspects, frequent use of the “Mafia analogy”, marked tendency towards a cultural and criminal profiling, and noticeable stereotyping. The investigative and academic sources differ from the journalistic ones in that the phenomenon is interpreted in more complex ways, but both seem to share the same criminal ethnoscape. The information available on Nigerian criminality in Italy is still poor: more information will probably be gathered in the next few years when criminologists and other experts are likely to pay more attention to the phenomenon.