Cultural Delicts: the Repercussion of Cultural Conflicts on Delinquent Behaviour. Reflections on the Contribution of Legal Anthropology to a Contemporary Debate

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Strategies for the Fight Against Female Genital Mutilation in Europe

“…Cultural pluralism is here to stay, and a new social order can only be achieved by protecting and respecting cultural diversity, because the future of our societies depends on it more than ever before 13 . Faced with this reality, repression through the criminal law is no more than a partial solution, a "patch".…”

Emerging Cultural Conflicts in Italy: A Challenge for Criminal Law

“…Enculturation is a cultural process by which individuals are influenced by their own historical culture (most often during childhood), consciously or even unconsciously. It may be defined as the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values (all of them can be called as "ingroup values") that enable them to become functioning members of their societies (Foblets, 1998). "Individuals, because of enculturation, feel compelled to respond to stimuli in differing ways.…”

“…The definition of a cultural defense is not contained in any statutes or official report, however the term has been discussed by several authors (Chiu;1994;Foblets, 1998;Harvard Law Review, 1986;Mezzetti, 2013;Renteln, 2009;Van Broeck, 2001). A cultural defense pertains to any doctrine that recognizes a defendant's "cultural background to negate or mitigate criminal liability" (Kim, 1997, pp.…”

“…First, Article 51 of the C.P (Justification of exercise of right) is a solution that targets cultural conflicts in minor cultural offenses; when culture as a fundamental right is not involved, as such as in cases in which immigrants simply ignore criminal laws without any reference to cultural conflicts, the offense cannot be justified by Article 51 of the C.P. The issue will deal with immigrants criminality, but it is a different, though related, subject as some evidences show (Foblets, 1998;Tonry, 1997;Tonry, 1998). Furthermore, there are less stereotyping effects; justified cultural offenses are not based on a negatively valued motivation, such as the ignorance of law, or insanity, but rather a positively valued motivation (the exercise of a right).…”

“…These conflicts play out in both private and public spheres; one of the most notable conflicts occurs when courts are confronted with cultural offenses. Although, defining a culturally based offense can be complicated, numerous authors have expressed the need to define a cultural offense (Basile, 2010;Bernardi, 2010;De Maglie, 2010;Foblets, 1998); and have therefore cited the definition put forth by Van Broeck (2001), "A cultural offense is an act by a member of a minority culture, which is considered an offense by the legal system of the dominant culture. That same act is nevertheless, within the cultural group of the offender, condoned, accepted as a normal behavior and approved or even endorsed and promoted in the given situation" (p. 5).…”