Classic strain theorists, such as Cohen (1955) and Cloward and Ohlin (1960), placed the emphasis on the relationship between strain and neutralization techniques. They argued that strains foster the adoption of beliefs favourable to crime. According to General Strain Theory(GST), stressful events are most likely to result in crime when a form of criminal reasoning already exists in the individual's mind. But few researchers have tested this idea. This study is one of the first to apply GST to a sample of 500 Italian subjects, in an attempt to merge two important theories: Agnew's theory and the neutralization theory. We aimed to test whether or not there is a combined effect between strain and some techniques of neutralization, especially with respect to two different criminal behaviours: major and minor crimes. The results provide partial support for the core idea of GST, namely of there being a relationship between strain, anger and crime.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships of public service motivation (PSM) with leadership style (transformational and transactional) in two different sectors: nonprofit and public research. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have investigated the effects of leadership styles on the level of PSM, assuming that transformational leadership has a positive and higher relation to PSM than transactional one. The analysis is based on data collected in two different investigations: a group of nonprofit volunteers, sitting in the NPs boards of directors, and a group of employees working for a National Research Institute. Findings – Transformational leaders in the nonprofit organisation have higher scores on PSM than transactional leaders. For the employees of the research institution a charismatic leadership is not necessary, and even demotivating; autonomy is a central factor for researcher, and the intervention of the leader seems to be playing a motivation role only in moments of impasse. Research limitations/implications – Some more work should be done in refining the measures used in the scales. The perception of the leader attitude as controlling or supportive can be the key to better understand some controversial results: this can be object of further studies. Practical implications – The results offers some preliminary results indicating that, in research institutions, a charismatic leadership should not be considered a generalised management solution. The transformational style reach better results in those research contexts in which research programmes are carried out via team work. Originality/value – Not so much work in this field has been done yet in Italy, even less focusing on leadership in the research institutions.

The positive impact of public service motivation on several individual work outcomes of public sector employees has been documented. Recent research into the ‘dark side’ of such an individual trait, however, has led some scholars to suggest that organizational conditions such as procedural constraints could affect one’s motivation, thus leading to the resignation of other-oriented employees. This study explores the relationships between one of the dimensions of public service motivation – namely, self-sacrifice – procedural constraints and organizational commitment by expanding the job demands–resources model of organizational commitment to different institutional settings. The study employs a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative (structural equation modelling) and qualitative (focus groups and in-depth interviews) data from three industries in Italy (health, local public administration and non-profit organizations). Our findings show that self-sacrifice positively moderates the negative relationship between procedural constraints and organizational commitment. The findings also highlight some of the undesirable effects of self-sacrifice that organizations have to deal with. Points for practitioners Selflessly motivated employees tend to be more sensitive to burdensome procedures, and are hence likely to experience tougher effects of such conditions on their commitment. Given the evidence of the public sector being a highly bureaucratic working context, the sources and remedies for this issue deserve attention from both public administration scholars and practitioners. The findings of the study support the development of practices aimed at warding selflessly motivated employees from the risk of entering a loss cycle of psychological impairment.