CIRCONVENZIONE DI INCAPACI (Exploitation of the Incapable). — This is the name given to the crime of one who, with a view to gain, by taking advantage of the needs, passions, or inexperience of a minor, or of the state of illness or mental deficiency of a person, induces that person to perform an act which entails any legal effect prejudicial to himself or to others.
In Roman law and in medieval law this act was not considered a distinct crime, but was included, according to the circumstances, under the crimes of usury, stellionate, or fraud; however, *circumventio* 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*, issued ca. 200 B.C.).
The Italian penal codes prior to 1889 envisaged this crime only if the person exploited was a minor; the penal code of 1889 (art. 415) extended penal protection also to the interdicted and the incapacitated. The present penal code gives the most complete definition of the offence as set out above, and punishes it with imprisonment from 2 to 6 years and a fine from 2,000 to 20,000 lire (currently from 16,000 to 160,000 lire).