The Social Regeneration of Mafia Assets in the Land of Gomorrah: The Role of Social Cooperatives

This chapter focuses on the Italian experience of the fight against organised crime, which complements conventional tools of repression and relies on social cohesion actions that support the social reuse of confiscated assets from organised crime. It discusses the opportunity granted by the Italian legal system, through Law 109/1996 and the Legislative Decree 159/2011, to third sector organisations, particularly to social cooperatives, to become privileged concessionaires in the assignment of confiscated properties. The chapter presents the Italian experience in the fight against the mafia illustrating the results that the confiscation of illicitly acquired assets has produced in Italy. It proposes policies to combat the mafia that are complementary to repressive ones such as those that can be built by the role of the social economy that can function as an antidote to the criminal economy. The chapter investigates the role played by social cooperatives that are regenerating social capital.