Some considerations on the proposal to repeal the crime of torture in Italian law

In this paper some ideas are exposed regarding the draft law which intends to repeal the crime of torture from Italian legislation. On the one hand, regarding the issue of violence in prisons and, in general, in police activities, it should be clear that the mere provision of the crime of torture alone cannot be an adequate answer: due to its symbolic and repressive nature, it has a general-preventive significance towards individual public agents, but certainly does not represent an adequate tool to solve a problem rooted in the overall structure of the affected state sectors. On the other hand, the provision has, and must continue to have, a predominantly symbolic meaning: from this perspective, it is certainly appropriate for it to remain an autonomous provision, and therefore not a simple aggravating circumstance, devoid of any symbolic as well as applicative significance.