When public leadership is destructive: Crimes committed by Italian mayors

This study investigates crimes committed by Italian mayors as a case of the destructive use of public leadership. Drawing on crime opportunity theory, we propose a theoretical model based on crimes as destructive behaviour, considering as internal opportunity factors i) the type of positional power, ii) the type of collusion with followers, and iii) the type of criminal action, in order to define the seriousness of the crimes. The primary data source for the study are the judgments of the Italian Court of Cassation, the highest judicial body below the Constitutional Court. As external opportunity factors, the study focuses on party switching (as a micro factor), collusion with political staff (as a meso factor), and the large size of the municipality (as a macro factor) impacting on the seriousness and the destructiveness of the crimes.