The effects of Usury Activities in the inland areas of Southern Italy: the case of Benevento and Campobasso

Abstract

This essay analyses the medium and long-term effects of usury activities in the inland areas of continental Southern Italy, taking the provinces of Benevento (Campania) and Campobasso (Molise) as comparative case studies. The argument is that usury cannot be reduced to a single patrimonial offence: it operates as a long-term social device that occupies the space left vacant by formal credit, producing wealth accumulation for the lender and progressive expropriation for the borrower. The empirical base integrates three sources, systematically triangulated: a qualitative content analysis of twenty-one criminal judgments issued by the Tribunal of Benevento between 2012 and 2024; official data on prosecutions, anti-usury financial support and Solidarity Fund applications collected by the Prefecture of Benevento from 2015 to 2024; and a body of comparative materials on the Molise judicial district, including a recorded institutional interview with Dr Nicola D’Angelo, Chief Prosecutor of Benevento and formerly Public Prosecutor of Campobasso. Findings show, on the one hand, a structurally low level of denunciation linked to victims’ economic dependence and reputational stigma, and on the other a sophisticated process of asset patrimonialization through real-estate appropriation, fictitious sales mandates and circulation of bank checks. The analysis distinguishes individual usury, banking usury and clan-related usury, highlighting the role of the Pagnozzi-Panella/Iadanza clan in the Caudina Valley as a marker of differential infiltration. The Benevento-Campobasso comparison reveals a common substrate of inland marginality but differential criminal morphologies, suggesting policy implications for prevention, social credit and territorial listening services.