Attitudes towards Italian Mafias Scale (AIMS): development and validation

Michael Schepisi; Marco Tullio Liuzza; Althea Frisanco; Anna Maria Giannini; Salvatore Maria Aglioti

doi:10.7717/peerj.16120

Attitudes towards Italian Mafias Scale (AIMS): development and validation

PeerJ. 2023 Oct 24:11:e16120. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16120. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Michael Schepisi^{1

2}, Marco Tullio Liuzza³, Althea Frisanco^{1

2}, Anna Maria Giannini⁴, Salvatore Maria Aglioti^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome Center for Life Nano-&Neuroscience, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Rome, Italy.
² IRCSS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
³ Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Roma "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy.

Abstract

In two studies we aimed at developing the Attitude towards Italian Mafias Scale (AIMS). In study 1 (N = 292) we used an Exploratory Factor Analysis to reduce the number of the items and explore their latent constructs. In study 2 (N = 393) we performed a Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the resulting 18-item questionnaire, whose latent structure was best identified by a general factor Mafia Attitude and three specific factors related to Behaviors, Cognitions and Emotions-Cognitions towards mafias. Moreover, we showed that the AIMS has (i) discriminant validity compared to a measure of attitudes towards crime, (ii) predictive validity of donation behavior to an association against mafias, (iii) internal consistency, and (iv) invariance for people of the five deep-rooted mafia regions of Southern Italy and those from the rest of Italy. Finally, we observed a difference between the participants from the five deep-rooted mafia regions (i.e., Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Sicily) and the rest of Italy, with the former having surprisingly more negative attitudes towards mafias compared to the latter. The AIMS might help to reliably survey people's sentiment towards Italian mafias and promote targeted and effective law-related education interventions.

Keywords: Antisocial behavior; Attitudes; Mafia; Organized crime; Psychometric validation; Quantitative data.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Attitude*
Cognition*
Emotions
Humans
Sicily
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the small grant “Avvio alla Ricerca” tipo II (n. AR220172B7D7C570) from Sapienza University of Rome and awarded to Michael Schepisi for participants payment, and by the grant given by Ministero dell’Interno (CUP F23J18000050007) within the Project: “Nei Panni di Caino capire e difendere le ragioni di Abele (Educazione alla legalitá per la prevenzione di comportamenti antisociali espressi anche attraverso l’uso della realtá virtuale immersiva)” PON Legalitá FESR/FSE 2014-2020 for APC payment. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.