On October 7 and 28, 2015, two groups of fifth-year LUISS students from the Department of Law spent a day with the Istituto Superiore di Tecniche Investigative (ISTI) in Velletri.
Sponsored by the Office of the General Manager and Vice Rector Paola Severino, the initiative is part of a series of collaborations between the Department of Law and the Arma dei Carabinieri, integrating academics with practical professional skills. Italy’s most advanced training center, the ISTI aims to strengthen traditional investigative methods with modern techniques and avant-garde technology.
“Colonel Maurizio Ferla, Commander of the ISTI, explained the center’s structure and principal activities,” says student Emanuele Filippone, “We visited technical and multimedia rooms as well as laboratories for identification, site inspections, biological samples, ballistics, fingerprinting, and more. It was an out-of-the-ordinary day.”
The instructors then taught students crime-scene investigation techniques including blood pattern analysis and showed them the center’s training areas. “It was an excellent opportunity, especially for those interested in careers in criminal justice or in the judiciary,” explains Emanuele Birritteri. “We experimented with practical aspects that you never study in books. The instructors also had us participate in simulations and small trials to test our intuition and analyze new, different situations, such as analyzing bullet trajectories.”
“As soon as we were told about the possibility of visiting the institute, I signed up,” explains LUISS student Francesca Cannata. “I believe it is an innovative way to increase the university’s academic offerings, taking students from the abstract environment of criminal law, to the concrete reality of criminal investigations.”
“I was really struck,” continued Francesca, “with the commander’s stories, having participated in 700 investigations. I was really astounded by the fact that, over the years, he has managed to reach a certain balance between human sensitivity, inevitably shaken by savage crime scenes, and the detachment that the job requires. I think this type of initiative is fundamental in understanding your inclinations and aptitudes. At the end of the day I asked myself if I would ever be able to work in such an environment. My visit on October 7 helped me understand my answer.”