ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between poverty and criminality and the various actions taken pursuant to public policies intended to counteract these two phenomena. The theoretical concepts underlying the historical approach the public authorities have taken both in helping the poor and socially excluded and in controlling them will be discussed. Social exclusion can become a catalyst for engaging in deviant behaviour, including criminality, or it can result in victimisation and thus contribute to making life less safe for people at the margins of society.
