Circonvenzione di Incapaci

CIRCONVENZIONE DI INCAPACI. - This is the name given to the crime of a person who, for purposes of profit, by abusing the needs, passions or inexperience of a minor, or the state of infirmity or mental deficiency of a person, induces that person to carry out an act that entails any legal effect harmful to that person or to others.

In Roman law and in medieval law such an act was not considered a distinct crime, but was included, according to the circumstances, in the crime of usury or of stellionatus or of fraud; the c. was, however, 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 provided for this crime only if the person circumvented was a minor; the penal code of 1889 (art. 415) extended criminal protection also to persons under interdiction and to persons incapacitated. The penal code currently in force gives the offense the more complete definition reported above, and punishes it with imprisonment from 2 to 6 years and with a fine from 2,000 to 20,000 lire (currently from 16,000 to 160,000 lire).