Giovani immigrati di seconda generazione e comportamenti devianti: spunti di riflessione dalla letteratura sociologica

The paper deals with the relationship between second generation immigrants and deviant behavior. The burning question concerns the possibility of considering the condition of “second generation” as a condition that can promote the implementation of deviant behavior. To find an answer, different theoretical perspectives are taken into consideration. Sociology addressed this topic over the last century with different points of view: the paradigm of cultural conflict, the relative deprivation theory, the social control theory and the labeling theory. The presentation of each theoretical perspective is enhanced by research data from national and international literature. An analysis of the different paradigms shows the need to overcome the individual paradigms in favor of a reading that takes into account the complexity of this phenomenon. In fact this complexity concerns both the own concept of “second generation”, in which you can find a universe of stories and fields, and the social, the environmental and the relational conditions in which young second–generation are living. In addition, the immigrant status of second generation must be interwoven with the condition of adolescence, which in itself is a condition at risk, both for young immigrants and natives.