TRAJECTORIES #1: Beyond the Crime: A Look at the Author
- Jan 23
- 11 min read
Updated: Feb 23
Martina Erba, Psychologist
Introduction to the theme of the month
This month, our library opens up to complex and often avoided territory: the look at the perpetrator.
Talking about human development also means questioning difficult trajectories, stories that are not read only through the lens of judgment or guilt.
In this issue, we cross the line between developmental psychology, criminology, and clinical practice to ask ourselves what it means to work with those who have committed a crime, what tools exist, and what ethical and professional position we are called to live in as psychologists and psychologists.
You'll find first-person accounts of a clinical experience in prison, reflections on group work with sex offenders, theoretical insights, and reading suggestions to continue exploring a topic that deeply touches on victim protection, individual responsibility, and the prevention of recidivism.
An invitation, as always, to remain in complexity and cultivate a perspective that holds together development, context, and relationship.
Happy reading!
The Developmental Library
Good morning, everyone!
My name is Martina Erba, I'm 27 years old, and I've been officially practicing as a psychologist for a year.
I completed my studies in 2023, obtaining my habilitation in January 2025. Currently, I work part-time as a research collaborator at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan (where I was formed) and, at the same time, I carry out an experience that has significant value for me: co-hosting a treatment group for sex offenders at the San Vittore Prison, together with the CIPM (Italian Center for the Promotion of Mediation) cooperative.
How did this journey begin?
I'll explain it to you later!
THE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE
Once I finished my three-year degree in Psychological Sciences and Techniques, I chose as my master's degree “Developmental Psychology and Protection Processes”, a path that focuses specifically on the minor, deepening his growth in all its phases (from childhood to young adulthood) and the different contexts in which he lives and acts, such as the family, the school and the peer group.
Within this master's program, a course that immediately caught my attention was “Personal Protection Regulations”; its goal was to provide the skills needed to navigate the main protective regulations for individuals, and especially minors.
The regulations concerned not only the person as a potential victim, but also as a potential perpetrator of criminally relevant conduct.
It was precisely this second aspect that piqued my interest. In fact, until that time, the courses had always focused on the protection of the child-victim and his family in the event of abuse and ill-treatment. The figure of the perpetrator always remained in the background: who he is, how he is treated, and what paths are envisaged for him were aspects that were superficially addressed or completely neglected.
This question brought me closer to the world of criminology, leading me to focus attention on the treatment of offenders.
An initial opportunity for concrete contact with this area was offered to me by the University, thanks to the laboratory “Treatment Interventions on Offenders” led by Professor Giulini and the Professionalizing Experiences led by Dr. Scotti. Professionalizing Experiences are a unique feature of the Catholic University; they are activities to be carried out in a specific context, under the guidance of a tutor, allowing students to explore a professional context and experience firsthand topics that would otherwise remain purely theoretical.
Thanks to these experiences, I became acquainted with the CIPM - Italian Center for the Promotion of Mediation -, a cooperative active in Milan since 1995 that provides criminal mediation, psychotraumatological support to crime victims, and treatment interventions for sexual and violent offenders (such as mistreatment and stalking), both within and outside the prison. In the Milan area, these treatments are carried out in the prisons of Bollate, Opera, and San Vittore.
Both experiences proved invaluable: they allowed me not only to delve deeper into the dynamics and characteristics of this specific user base, through the use of materials such as reports, anamneses, individual interviews, and minutes of treatment groups, but also to personally witness intramural groups of sexual offenders and mistreatment at Bollate Prison.
Therefore, once my studies were completed, I decided to complete the 750-hour qualifying internship at the CIPM Cooperative to further explore these psychological and criminological dynamics and understand, more consciously, whether this could become my future professional area.
THE INTERNSHIP
THE INSTITUTION: WHAT IS THE CIPM?
The Italian Center for the Promotion of Mediation (CIPM) was founded in Milan in 1995 as an Association for the Promotion of Restorative Justice Practices and Peaceful Conflict Management. In July 2018, it was established as a social cooperative and, to date, has eleven offices throughout the country: Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Eastern Lombardy (Brescia), Triveneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Puglia, Calabria, and Sardinia.
The CIPM provides mediation and psychotraumatological support to crime victims, and, in particular, treatment interventions aimed at perpetrators of relational crimes, such as mistreatment, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and murder, both within and outside the prison (intramurary).
The proposed interventions are inspired by the Good Lives Model, a Canadian humanistic model developed by Marshall and Ward, which places the personal responsibility of the perpetrator of criminal conduct at the center, identifying him as the best “self-expert”, that is, the person who best knows his behavior and the motivations that support it. The goal is to involve the perpetrator in a process of re-education, rehabilitation, and support, which fosters a greater understanding of oneself and others, allows us to recognize the causes of criminal conduct, reconstruct the “chain of crime”, and prevent possible future recidivism.
The treatments take place within a group setting, made up of people who have committed the same type of crime. This facilitates the opening and sharing of one's life story, criminal history, thoughts, experiences, and emotions, minimizing stereotypes, judgments, and stigmas.
The groups are generally led by two psychologists, who intervene to open and close the meetings, in times of difficulty or to guide the work on relevant topics or complex situations. The group thus becomes the preferred treatment tool, promoting direct learning, discussion, growth, and mutual support among members.
Within the prison context, treatment is intensive and highly structured, with daily meetings (except Saturdays and Sundays) that alternate:
Speech groups, where you deepen your knowledge of yourself, your history, and the chain of crime.
Expressive groups, such as art therapy, yoga, or physical activity, promote contact with one's body and greater awareness of how emotions are experienced and expressed.
The work is supported by a multidisciplinary team, composed of criminologists, psychologists, educators, psycho-diagnosticians, and an art therapist, to ensure integrated and structured care, in dialogue with the various services involved in the user journey.
In the intramural setting, however, the groups are held weekly and focus primarily on the crime committed, its consequences for daily life, and the difficulties associated with social reintegration.
These re-education pathways represent a fundamental form of protection not only for the user, but also for the direct and indirect victims created and for society as a whole, into which the perpetrator will be reinstated once the prison sentence or alternative measure (suspended sentence, house arrest, therapeutic custody, etc.) has been concluded.
These re-education pathways represent a fundamental form of protection not only for the user, but also for the direct and indirect victims created and for society as a whole, into which the perpetrator will be reinstated once the prison sentence or alternative measure (suspended sentence, house arrest, therapeutic custody, etc.) has been concluded.
MY INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
My internship involved two main tasks: call center service and verbalization of the treatment groups, both intramural and extramural.
The call center service was provided at the CIPM headquarters in Milan and the Presidio Criminologico Territoriale, a service of the Municipality of Milan managed, through a call for proposals, by the CIPM cooperative and oriented towards the same areas of intervention.
During this activity, I had the opportunity to interact not only with users and victims firsthand, but also with the various services involved in their care, such as lawyers, social workers, legal-pedagogical officials, UEPE officials, therapeutic communities, SERDs, and NOAs. This allowed me to deepen my legal and legal skills, but above all to learn how to accept a request, how to orient a person towards the most appropriate service, and how to manage emotionally complex situations, sometimes characterized by frustration or aggression related to the user's legal and criminal status.
The second task involved reporting the treatment groups I had been assigned to; my task was to report in detail and faithfully the interventions of the hosts and users, so as to enter the reports into the database shared with all operators and monitor the progress of the treatment process.
I had the opportunity to follow an external group of perpetrators of mistreatment and stalking (stalking) and three intramural groups at Bollate Prison; they were Stress, Trauma, and Empathy with the Victim, addressed to perpetrators of mistreatment, Sexual Education, and Assembly, and addressed to sex offenders.
The group “Stress, Trauma and Empathy with the Victim” started from the concept of stress, delving into its meaning and the life contexts in which a person may have experienced it. The work developed from an initially self-centered focus towards a progressively victim-oriented one, exploring the type of stress the latter may have experienced during the perpetration of the crime and the related emotional experiences. The aim was to stimulate and strengthen empathic and relational skills, which are lacking and deficient within these subjects, characterized by a personality focused on domination and oppression of others.
The Sex Education group, unlike the others, had a shorter duration (one month, for a total of four meetings) and a structure similar to that of a sex education course for adolescents. Its peculiarity consisted in working on specific aspects of sexuality which, frequently, in the minds of these offenders, are confused or distorted.
The main ones are:
The relationship with one's body and that of one's partner, to stimulate memories with respect to how one experienced the change in one's body and how one took care of one's partner's body.
The differences between the various stages of the development of human sexuality are highlighted and provide precise explanations regarding the importance these differences play in one's daily life.
The perception of the boundaries of the self, aimed at identifying and recognizing the existence of one's own internal world, supported by subjective experiences, in a continuous and constant relationship with the world outside.
The relational aspect of human sexuality underlines the aggressive aspects that concern the relationship and the constant adjustments of the balance between partners.
The work was therefore aimed at encouraging critical reflection on one's personal cognitions and experiences (often characterized by distortions), starting from theoretical stimuli proposed during the meetings.
Finally, the Assembly represented a weekly moment of discussion between the treatment program and life inside the prison. It was similar to a condominium assembly, attended not only by the host but also by the plan's legal and pedagogical officials, to address any issues and maintain a constant dialogue between the CIPM team and the penitentiary institution.
During the internship, I also had the opportunity to attend initial assessment interviews, which aimed to assess the user's legal and criminal situation, understand their life history, and determine their stance on the crime committed (denial or recognition, as extremes).
It was an extremely formative internship, which allowed me to consolidate the criminological and psychological skills I had developed during my university career, learn about different treatment settings (individual and group), interact with different professionals, and learn to work in teams. This last aspect constitutes a fundamental element in the criminal context and, more generally, in psychological work, where individual and professional differences become a valuable resource for enriching and improving treatment intervention.
THE CINEMA GROUP – DISTRICT HOUSE “FRANCESCO DI CATALDO” (SAN VITTORE)
Since September 2025, together with a fellow psychologist, I have co-hosted the treatment group “Cinema” for sex offenders at the Prison “Francesco di Cataldo”, better known as San Vittore.
The Cinema group, also present in the treatment carried out at the Bollate Prison, constitutes a unique intervention, in which the viewing of films and actual speaking groups alternate.
The selected films do not directly address the topic of crime, but touch on a series of issues that, directly or indirectly, may be linked to it and often represent risk factors in users' life histories; for example, emotions, family context, isolation, or the lack of meaningful relational bonds.
In the week following the viewing, the film is discussed as a group, starting from simple and immediate impressions (I liked/didn't like it), to progressively delve deeper into what aroused those sensations or emotions, often arriving at connections with episodes from one's own life story or everyday life.
One of the most significant aspects of this group is that the film allows users to gradually approach very activating and painful themes, which they struggle to tell or do not yet recognize as relevant nodes of their own story, helping them to identify them and mentally represent them as significant.
Of course, this process is not always linear nor only positive; sometimes, the issues addressed are so active that they arouse annoyance, irritation, or closure, especially towards the group and the operator.
It is therefore far from a simple experience. There are times when he left the group very tired or I have great difficulty finding the right way to convey a message, so that it is received as food for thought and not as a criticism or direct reference to the crime committed.
At the same time, however, it's an experience that opens up new and broad perspectives for me; it allows me, for example, to gain a deeper understanding of the issues of violence (including gender), to connect with rarely encountered emotions and suffering, and to observe how, at times, small insights and details can open profound and personal conversations and discussions.
Furthermore, this experience is training me enormously as a professional, teaching me how to build an appropriate and welcoming environment (starting also from the physical space in which the group takes place, which is always assigned), how silence is not only an element of discomfort, but sometimes a necessary tool for processing, reflecting and intervening more consciously, and how to welcome, contain and use the emotional reactions that emerge in the group, transforming them into useful and meaningful reading keys for the person.
PSYCHOLOGY CORNER
If what you've read has piqued your interest or raised new questions, here are some reading suggestions to explore more closely the topic of the treatment of offenders and gender-based violence:
“Buttare la chiave? La sfida del trattamento per gli autori di reati sessuali” by Paolo Giulini e Carla Maria Xella — Raffaello Cortina Editore (collana Psicologia clinica e psicoterapia, 2011)
A text that delves into the treatment of sexual offenders, delving into their methods of intervention and the main theoretical and scientific foundations.
“Era una brava persona – sguardi sulla violenza maschile contro le donne” di Emanuele Corn, Leandro Malgesini e Ivan Pezzotta — Il Margine (Trento), collana Pinova, 2024
The book addresses the issue of gender-based violence by questioning stereotypes and widespread narratives, offering a reading that intertwines psychological, social, and legal dimensions.
In conclusion
We close this issue with an awareness that perhaps doesn't offer simple answers, but opens up necessary questions: looking at human development also means knowing how to remain complex.
Approaching the stories of offenders isn't about justifying, but about trying to understand; it's not about taking away victims' space, but about working to ensure there aren't any new victims.
As psychologists, students, and researchers, we are often called upon to balance responsibilities, care, limitations, and possibilities for change. It is a job that requires tools, training, but also a gaze capable of listening and doubt.
If this number has sparked questions, resistance, or new curiosity, then it has already done its job. Our library grows right here: in spaces where knowledge meets experience and allows itself to be transformed.
As psychology professionals or students, what space do we give to the perspective of the offender in our education and practice? Is this a topic you feel distant from, uncomfortable with, or necessary?
Want to share your world of psychology or share your resources? Send us an email: thedevelopmentallibrary@gmail.com — our library grows thanks to you.
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