L’eccezione che rivela la norma: genere e sex offending nell’intervento del Servizio sociale per minorenni

Abstract

This contribution analyzes the figure of the Juvenile Sex Offender (JSO) as a socially co-constructed reality within an interpretative epistemological framework [P.L. Berger, T. Luckmann, 1997]. It demonstrates how the transition from a sexually abusive act to the status of a JSO does not depend sic et simpliciter on the commission of a crime, but rather on legal mechanisms, organizational practices, and discursive repertoires. These elements ensure that the criminal act becomes the hegemonic status within the processes of the subject’s identity reconstruction [H.S. Becker, 2017]. Within this framework, masculinity, despite being common to the majority of offenders, remains an under-theorized dimension; as a result, the masculine and heteronormativity persist and maintain themselves as an implicit norm [R. Connell, 1995; R. Connell, J. Messerschmidt, 2005; N. Gavey, 2005; C. Rinaldi, 2018]. This paper presents the results of research conducted between November 2023 and June 2025 at the USSM (Juvenile Social Service Office) in Palermo, specifically within the EOS group (Équipe Oltre il Silenzio), a specialized team managing minors who have committed sexual offenses [A.M. Di Vita, R. Salierno, 2013]. The empirical basis consists of the analysis of 23 judicial files and 11 semi-structured interviews conducted with members of the team. The results show how gender emerges primarily in cases that break the dominant heterosexual script—female offenders, male victims, male-on-male abuse—thereby making masculinity visible as an implicit norm. Exploring these discursive configurations, which emerged from the interviews, allows for an understanding of the Juvenile Sex Offender as a socially and institutionally produced reality. It further demonstrates how the gender order functions as an underlying norm in the coding of cases, as well as in defining what is rendered exceptional or invisible even within the context of sexual crime.