The shadow of bullying and baby gangs, what lies behind the murder of the 16-year-old in Bologna

Bullying and baby gangs, what lies behind the murder of the 16-year-old in Bologna

There would be the shadow of bullying among teenagers in the latest tragic event north of Bologna: a fight between a group of teenagers armed with knives ended with the murder of a sixteen-year-old Italian of Maghreb origins and the wounding of two other peers.

The tragedy occurred around 10:30 p.m. when residents heard someone screaming for help outside a pub. When they realized a young man was injured on the ground, they called the police.

When the 118 emergency workers arrived, the young man was in critical condition. Transported to the Ospedale Maggiore, a few hundred meters from the site of the attack, the sixteen-year-old died shortly after. He was killed with a single slash to the chest another minor, a seventeen-year-old Italian, immediately tracked down by the mobile officers. He was at his home, he still had with him the knife used during the attack.

The other young people involved are not in danger of life: one was hospitalized and received a 10-day prognosis, the other refused medical treatment. The culprit, questioned by the investigators, confessed and is now investigated for murder and attempted murder.

From the first statements of the stabber it emerged that he did not have good blood with that group of boys. It seems that the killer had already filed a complaint against one of them after yet another fight in the local park. One of the many fightsaccording to some witnesses who live in the neighborhood and who know the group, and who describe the area as increasingly less safe.

The phenomenon of the bullying and that of the baby gang are real social alarms. The victims of aggression, injuries, bullying, are often peers, but we are also talking about acts of vandalism and disturbance of the public peace, up to more serious crimes such as drug trafficking, robberies and even very serious injuries.

These are absolutely unpredictable phenomena, but above all incomprehensible. Very often these are apparently normal and perfectly integrated kids who, however, harbour problems that probably institutionsthe schoolthe families they can’t read. They brag on social media about absurd crimes, losing touch with reality, as if the screen made everything unreal. But when and how does the law punish these crimes? Is it really as easy to get away with it as many minors unfortunately think?

Even minors are punished for the crimes they commit, as long as they are at least 14 years old. This is the threshold established by law for criminal liability: below this age, the minor cannot be prosecuted for the crime committed. For all those who, however, are minors but have reached the age of 14, there is a specific procedure called juvenile criminal trial.

However, for the minor the prison represents the last resort, it has ample possibilities to avoid prison thanks to various institutions provided by law, such as: probation, archiving due to irrelevance of the fact, judicial pardon.

But not only that: thanks to the sentence reduction which, by law, the judge must always grant to every minor, it is also easier to obtain a suspended sentence. In short: the juvenile trial tends to re-educate the offender, rather than to punish him. Of course, in Bologna, today there is pain, disbelief, confusion: the mother and father of the poor murdered boy cannot explain what happened. “He was a boy loved by everyone, he had many friends: now he will never come back. He brightened our days”.