Institutional inefficiencies in law enforcement: Constructing composite indices of impunity from Italian provincial data

Mario Eboli () and Lorenzo Fabiani ()
Additional contact information
Mario Eboli: Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain
Lorenzo Fabiani: Direzione di Polo Medicina, Università di Torino, Italy

No 2025/06, Working Papers from Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain)

Abstract: This study introduces a novel methodology for quantifying impunity at the provincial level, within the same national legal framework. By aggregating indicators of the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in Italy, we construct two indices meant to measure the likelihood that criminal and civil offenders remain unpunished. The first focuses on the determinants of impunity of criminal misdemeanours, based on four observable variables that reflect the efficacy of the institutional response to crime. The second, broader index aims at more widespread illicit behaviours, both civil and criminal, by adding variables that measure the efficiency of institutions (tribunals and local authorities) in dealing with civil and tax collection disputes. We utilise the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to assign weights to the variables that compose the index. Our study reveals significant regional disparities in the levels of impunity, which, on average, decrease with latitude, with northern regions exhibiting lower impunity levels.

Keywords: Impunity; Law enforcement; Institutional quality; Regional disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 K42 O43 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.doctreballeco.uji.es/wpficheros/Eboli_and_Fabiani_06_2025.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jau:wpaper:2025/06

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by María Aurora Garcia Gallego ().