Denunce anonime e giustizia penale tra Repubblica di Venezia e Lombardo-Veneto

This study focuses on the role of the institution of the anonymous denunciation from the last years of the Republic of Venice to the Lombardy-Venetia, and therefore covers the years going from the 1770s - 80s to the 1830s - 40s. It highlights the function of this institution over this long period in order to fully understand how anonymous denunciations were actually useful and useful for the political power in such different contexts. We examine the ties of power that were created between the authorities and the population, between governors and governed, through the anonymous denunciation and its role as a strategic instrument of community policing and social control, as well as through its symbolic and legal values. From this standpoint we consider the specific power structure and the ends of justice of the governments of the Serenissima and of the Lombardy-Venetia, since these are the fundamental factors that determined the modes and use of the anonymous denunciation over time, as well as its relationship with political power. By comparing the context of the late Serenissima, a horizontal republican state model, with the imperial model in force in Lombardy-Venetia under the Austrians, our study reveals how the self-same institution can change over time, as well as the different political and legal significance it can take on as it changes, also in the context of the criminal trial. To fully grasp the links and implications of this bond, we have investigated not only the history of the laws and institutions of the Serenissima and Lombardy-Venetia , but also other strategies of community policing employed by their governments to implement social control and administer justice, as well as the important role of the police in Lombardy-Venetia. To complete the scope of our research we have also included contributions and perspectives on the subject of social control coming from sociology, criminology, anthropology and psychology, fundamental for comprehending the importance of the anonymous denunciation in its relationship with political power. This study also reveals the interesting ambivalence felt towards the anonymous denunciation both by the political power and the population governed. In fact, at times its use is fully accepted and even encouraged by the investigating bodies, while at other times it is criticized and rejected. In any case, in both institutional contexts we see the fundamental role it played both as an instrument of social control, formal and informal, vertical and horizontal, and as a political instrument also employed by the population to assert its prerogatives. In the end, it becomes clear that the use of the anonymous denunciation was largely based on a relationship of trust and an informal contract between the parties, which characterized the republican context of the Serenissima but was no longer applicable to the model of state or the relationship between political power and population in the Lombardy-Venetia