ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges to be faced in studying crime and criminal justice comparatively. It focuses on to the classical problem of 'starting points' in comparative research and the way this affects the task of discovering similarities and differences amongst systems of criminal justice. The comparative study of criminal justice therefore makes it particularly necessary to develop a 'reflexive criminology'. The chapter highlights some of the continuing differences in crime, criminal justice and discourses about crime in Italy which underlies, accompany or retard European or global trends. The steadily growing political pressure to recognize the seriousness of 'micro-criminality' in Italy means that the criminal justice apparatus is likely to be asked to respond more effectively to popular demands for the effective control of crime. Many other continuing differences in criminal justice can best be explained in terms of self-validating cultural presuppositions.
