As identified by the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children, in the document "Why children’s protection from violence must be at the heart of the Post-2015 development agenda" (and the following 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by UN in September 2015) and other relevant documents of the Council of Europe (i.e. Lanzarote Convention and Istanbul Convention) violence against children is an emergency. Within a vaste literature, violence is defined as a complex phenomeon (Aldama, 2003; Edling, 2014; Epp & Watkinson, 1996; Krug et al, 2002; Francia & Edling, 2016; Riva, 2013; Toch, 1992; Withehead, 2004, Wu, 2003). One of the contemporary critical issue, with reference to violence against children, is related to the involvement of children in criminal organizations, such as the phenomenon of the ‘gang’ that is particularly important in several European urban centres.

Pedagogical studies have underlined how criminal organisations are based on a strong pedagogic method, scientifically founded, made up of educational methods, specific relationships, shared values (Bertolini, 1996).

Within this framework, Camorra si a criminal phenomenon that has been studied widely (Barbaglio, 2010; Allum 2011). Even though there are many historical and journalistic contributions on this topic, specific studies related to the children involvement in Camorra are still missing within the frame of the human sciences.

This paper aims at presenting a research study on a concrete educational strategy designed to face this risk, in order to give a contribution for increasing knowledge and for defining practical strategies to counteract the 'pedagogy of criminality'.

One of the research hypotesis is that, generation after generation, a criminal organization such as Camorra are nourished by a specific educational system. It ends up winning and “good” education loosing in many settings (Farnè, 2015).

The paper is presenting a strategy adopted in a field of the Campania region (Italy) by developing integrated educational settings for 'the sons and daughters' of the Camorra,  children who live violence as part of their every day lives. These children think that criminality is the natural way of living within a society. The social group that they live with expects them to interiorise their values, rules, life paths in a way that tends to be more concrete and effective compared to how the other society, the legal one, is able to do.

In such a highly problematic socio-cultural contexts, children have constant overwhelming emotional and care needs. In these contexts, educators have to be aware of the underpinned pedagogical theory that guides their actions. It is in fact easy to drown in these allarming settings, it is easy to give quick ready made answers to the questions these children ask because their background makes it difficult to analyse situations in depth. It is, for educators involved in these contexts, like being sucked into a black whole. 

This is the backgroud where, 15 years ago, the METODO INTEGRA  has been developed by an educational perspective from a group of professionals. The approach uses a phenomenological perspective that gives value to the subject and to his/ her own experience. It is a discovered oriented method that appears to be an efficient strategy in order to guide the educational relationship (educator-child; pedagogue- parent) by developing educational interventions from a multiple perspective.

The METODO INTEGRA is applied in 3 centers for difficult children set in problematic neighbourhoods of the Campania Region, the biggest distribution square of Europe. It is also being experimented with imprisonned minors, non accompanied children and in Italian schools. 

The paper will present the METODO INTEGRA case study, by describing its phases of development and the results achieved.

The paper described the METODO INTEGRA by exploring it from a phenomenological-hermeneutic perspective (Van Manen, 1990) in order to interpret what emerged from the concrete field of study, avoiding the reference to previous knowledge (Sabatano, 2015a). The focus is on the understanding of the the meanings the subjects give to the phenomenon more than on the classification of it. The strategy used is the case study (Yin, 1994), which has been carried out by studying the METODO INTEGRA by referring to several sources (life histories, observations, protocols of meetings, pedagogical documentations and others), and by direct interviews with actors involved.

The paper will described how the METODO INTEGRA is able to face the social exclusion, increasing the quality of communication between school institutions, families and local community and developing a shared strategy for the prevention of criminality affiliation of children. In the long run. the METODO INTEGRA has been able to create a group of educators active in the promotion of children rights and social inclusion of children from Camorra's families. This has important effect in terms of sustaining the relationship between parents, sons and daughters, in order to counteract marginality and social exclusion, as well as in terms of developing cognitive tools to help children in order to understand and modify their reality. Finally, it has specific effects on the educational services professionals, in terms of increasing their efficacy in working in group and in facing such a violent context.

References (400 words) Biffi, E. (2017). Tutelare i minori contro la violenza: dalle strategie alle pratiche. EDUCATION SCIENCES & SOCIETY, 1, 47-64. Allum F. (2011), Il crimine organizzato a Napoli, Napoli, L’ancora del Mediterraneo. Barbagallo F. (2010), Storia della camorra, Bari, Laterza. Bertolini P. (1996), La responsabilità educativa. Studi di pedagogia sociale, Il Segnalibro, Torino. Bertolini P. (2001), Pedagogia fenomenologica, La Nuova Italia, Milano, p. 190. Di Gennaro G., Pizzuti D. (Edd.), Dire camorra oggi, Forme e metamorfosi della criminalità organizzata in Campania, Napoli, Guida, 45-135. Fabbri L. (2007), Comunità di pratiche e apprendimento riflessivo. Per una formazione situata, Carocci, Roma. Farnè R. (2015), L’amore e la guerra, Introduzione a Sabatano F., La scelta dell’inclusione, Guerini, Milano. Isidori M.V., Vaccarelli A. (a cura di) (2013), Pedagogia dell’emergenza, didattica nell’emergenza. I processi formativi nelle situazioni di criticità individuali e collettive, FrancoAngeli, Milano. Malaguti E. (2010), «Educazione inclusiva oggi? Ripensare i paradigmi di riferimento e risignificare le esperienze», L’integrazione scolastica e sociale, vol. 9, n. 4, pp. 1-48. Massa R. (a cura di) (1992), La clinica della formazione. Un’esperienza di ricerca, FrancoAngeli, Milano. Mortari L. (2007), Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia. Prospettive epistemologiche, Carocci, Roma. Palmieri C. (a cura di), Crisi sociale e disagio educativo. Spunti di ricerca pedagogica, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2012. Sabatano F. (2011), Crescere ai margini. Educare al cambiamento nell’emergenza sociale, Carocci, Roma. Sabatano F. (2012), «Cosa sa un bambino difficile. Cosa fa il Progetto Integra», Infanzia, n. 6, pp. 398-401. Sabatano F. (2013), «Me l’ha detto mia madre. Il sostegno ai genitori difficili nelle dinamiche di cambiamento», La famiglia, ed. La Scuola, pp. 116-131. Sabatano F. (2015a), «Educare per includere in contesti di rischio e marginalità», Encyclopaideia, vol. 19, n. 42. Sabatano F. (2015b), La scelta dell’inclusione. Progettare l’educazione in contesti di disagio, Guerini, Milano. Tilleczek K., Ferguson H. B. (2013), Youth, Education, and Marginality. Local and Global Expressions, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo. Van Manen M. (1990), «Researching lived experience. Human sciences for an action sensitive», in Id. (Ed) (2002). Writing in the dark. Phenomenological studies in interpretative inquiry, The Althouse Press London, Ontario.