A SURVEY WAS MADE OF 50 INMATES FROM A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY IN GENOA, ITALY, WHO WERE CLOSE TO BEING RELEASED AFTER COMPLETING PRISON TERMS OF BETWEEN 6 MONTHS OR LESS TO A LITTLE OVER 4 YEARS FOR OFFENSES RANGING FROM CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY, TRAFFIC LAW VIOLATIONS, DRUG RELATED CHARGES, AND SMUGGLING TO ASSAULT AND BATTERY, BUT NOT INCLUDING HOMICIDE. THE PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY WAS TO DETERMINE THE SUBJECTS' PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS AND SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUNDS AND TO ISOLATE THE POSSIBLE CRIMINOGENIC FACTORS. THE 50 SUBJECTS WERE ALL MALES, RANGING IN AGE FROM 20 TO 69, AND ALL WERE RESIDENTS OF GENOA. THE DATA WERE TABULATED ACCORDING TO A VARIETY OF DESCRIPTIVE VARIABLES: AGE GROUP, PLACE OF ORIGIN, FORMER OCCUPATION, INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT, PSYCHIATRIC OR PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER, EDUCATION, AGE AT WHICH THEY HAD LEFT SCHOOL, FAMILY COMPOSITION AND OTHER FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES, MARITAL STATUS, PREVIOUS INSTITUTIONALIZATION, CRIMINAL HISTORY WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON RECIDIVISM AND CRIME CAREER TYPES, CRIME FOR WHICH THEY WERE CURRENTLY IMPRISONED, LENGTH OF SENTENCE THEY WERE SERVING, AND TYPE OF WORK, IF ANY, THEY HAD BEEN PERFORMING IN PRISON. AMONG THE CHIEF FINDINGS WAS THE PREDOMINANCE OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUNDS, LITTLE OR NO EDUCATION, AND BROKEN HOMES. BORN MOSTLY IN THE UNDERDEVELOPED SOUTH, SUBJECTS HAD EMIGRATED TO THE HIGHLY INDUSTRIALIZED GENOA, WHERE THEY WERE SEGREGATED AND RELEGATED TO POOR PAYING JOBS. THE MAJORITY OF THE SUBJECTS ALSO HAD HISTORIES OF PREVIOUS INSTITUTIONALIZATION (FROM REFORM SCHOOL TO FORMER PRISON TERMS), AND HAD NO CLEAR PERCEPTION OF THEIR JURIDICAL STATUS OR ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE CRIMINAL LAWS THEY HAD BROKEN, ALTHOUGH THE MAJORITY WERE OF AVERAGE, AND A FEW EVEN OF ABOVE-AVERAGE, INTELLIGENCE. THE SURVEY ALSO ESTABLISHED THAT IMPRISONMENT HAD FOSTERED RECIDIVISM INSTEAD OF REHABILITATION AND PRISONIZATION INSTEAD OF SOCIAL REINTEGRATION. A BIBLIOGRAPHY IS PROVIDED. --IN ITALIAN. (LGR)