CIRCONVENZIONE DI INCAPACI. - This is the name given to the offence committed by one who, for purposes of gain, by taking advantage of the needs, passions, or inexperience of a minor, or of the condition of infirmity or mental deficiency of a person, induces him to perform an act entailing any legal effect harmful to himself or to others.
In Roman law and in intermediate law this act was not regarded as a distinct offence, but was included, according to circumstances, under the offence of usury, fraudulent dealing, or fraud; c., however, was, as it still is today, specifically taken into consideration outside the field of criminal law (cf., among other things, the lex Plaetoria or Laetoria de circumscriptione minorum, enacted about 200 B.C.).
The Italian penal codes prior to 1889 provided for this offence only where the person deceived was a minor; the penal code of 1889 (art. 415) extended criminal protection also to persons judicially interdicted and to those of limited legal capacity. The penal code now in force gives the offence the more complete definition set out above, and punishes it by imprisonment from 2 to 6 years and by a fine of 2,000 to 20,000 lire (currently from 16,000 to 160,000 lire).