The Italian positivists opposed the dominant interest of classicists in the criminal act and in finding a proper balance between the perceived seriousness of the crime and the severity of the imposed penalty according to a predetermined scale. The positivists intended to determine the incidental or root causes of criminal behavior and identify the most effective means of preventing and controlling criminality. After a promising beginning, criminology in Italy has fallen short in its further development as an interdisciplinary, autonomous field of scientific inquiry. Consequently, its research efforts do not have operational impact on the prevention and control of crime because of a lack of influence on decisional and administrative structures. Interaction among scholars is not coordinated, with each researcher primarily oriented to the parochial concerns of a specific research specialization. The political leaders and criminal justice bureaucrats show little interest in taking advantage of the benefits of research. However, the enactment of No. 354 Law establishes a metajuridical function as a science applied to criminal law and to be performed by criminologists. The law sets the stage for sweeping reform of corrections. Ten notes and 16 bibliographic entries are provided.