Servizio sociale e sistema di giustizia penale: momenti di collaborazione

This article describes the main forms of cooperation and synergy between social services and the criminal justice system, in particular in cases where a social worker is required to interact with the judicial system within the framework of alternatives to detention. This paper briefly analyses the development of social assistants’ work, focusing on the periods where this role strengthened with regards to the execution of a criminal sentence. It also describes the function of punishment and the concept of social reintegration, and finally makes some reflections on victims’ rights. The author hopes that it will be possible to reform the “mild imprisonment” and he reflects on the importance of private social organisations in the field of the still unclear relationship between social services and the criminal justice system, in particular regarding restorative justice