13 Sep extortion

The crime of extortion, governed by the article 629 the Penal Code, It is configured when a subject, through violence or threat, forces another to do or omit something, thus obtaining an unfair profit with others' damage, And it is qualified by doctrine and jurisprudence as a pluri -offensive crime that simultaneously bits the moral freedom of the person, his patrimonial sphere e, in a wider sense, Security and public economic order; Three elements are needed for its integration: the typical conduct, constituted by the use of violence (physical or psychic) or the threat (expressed or implicit) suitable for coating the victim's willingness; the event, represented by the patrimonial damage of the offended person, which translates into a decrease in its heritage or in an undue enrichment of others; and the subjective element of specific willful misconduct, that is, the consciousness and will to force the victim with the intent to get an unfair profit; From this point of view, the jurisprudence has clarified that the profit must be not only economically appreciable but also "unfair", i.e. devoid of a legitimate legal title, as highlighted by Cass. pen., sez. II, 9 March 2017, n. 11581, according to which he also commits extortion who, while boasting an effective credit, resorts to violent or threatening means to obtain payment, since in this case the purpose of protection of the law is pursued with methods prohibited by the system; The expected sentence is the imprisonment of five to ten years and the fine from 1.000 a 4.000 euro, increased in the presence of specific aggravating people such as the use of weapons, The Commission by several people gathered, the mafia character of the extortion activity or the minor defense of the victim, And in these hypotheses the provisions of art are also grafted. 7 of D, L. 152/1991 (c.d. anti -mafia law), which provides for a sanctioning aggravation for the crimes committed in order to facilitate the activity of mafia -type associations; The crime differs from the robbery (art. 628 c.p.) Why, while the latter involves an immediate and violent subtraction of the good, the extortion implies the forced cooperation of the victim who, under threat, voluntarily performs the device deed (think of the trader who, in intimidation, Delivery of money or signature bills), And it is also different from private violence (art. 610 c.p.), which does not require the element of profit; The nature of the crime is permanent, Since its consumption continues until the state of constriction persists and not until the single device act, as clarified by Cass. pen., sez. II, 15 May 2014, n. 19695, With important effects on the start of the start of the prescription and identification of the Tempus Commissioners Delicti; The extortion can also be punished as an attempt (art. 56 c.p.), When the violent or threatening conduct, albeit suitable, He cannot bend the victim's will or does not produce the device act, as established by Cass. pen., sez. II, 3 June 2009, n. 23090; From a criminological point of view, It is one of the main sources of financing of criminal organizations, in particular of the mafia mold, who have made it a structural system of economic and social control, implemented in the form of the so -called "lace", That is, the systematic request for sums of money to entrepreneurs and traders in exchange for a fictitious "protection": The cases faced by the Sicilian and Calabrian jurisprudence emblematic, where the Court of Cassation reiterated that the reiteration of extortion requests against multiple subjects integrates the crime of aggravated extortion and not of simple threat; A typical example is the entrepreneur forced to pay periodic sums to a mafia clan to be able to work in peace, But the practice also shows more subtle forms of extortion, as veiled threats of commercial retaliation, intimidating acts such as fire or damage to goods, and even indirect psychological pressures, All modalities recognized by the Cassation as suitable to integrate the crime, as capable of affecting the freedom of self -determination of the victim; It must also be remembered that the crime is processed ex officio, given its gravity, and that in recent decades the legislator has introduced specific contrast tools, such as anti -mafia laws that allow the use of interceptions, collaborators of justice, seizures and assets, precisely to hit the illegal profits deriving from extortion activities; The institutional and association campaigns were also emblematic (For example, those of "Addiopizzo" in Palermo), who favored the report from the victims and contributed to making the repressive action of the state more effective; definitely, The extortion presents itself as a complex and multifaceted crime, capable of manifesting both organized crime as in petty crime, with very serious consequences for the victims and the legal economy, And for this it represents one of the most relevant and more contrasted cases in the context of contemporary Italian criminal law.