The levels of security worsen and the perception of a growth in criminal phenomena increases, usury in the head among the crimes on the rise in 2021: the Confcommercio Report with the evocative title ” We like Legality “which collects the concern sounds the alarm of the tertiary sector, especially food shops and hotels. The crime is fueled by Covid first and then by the war: extortion, theft, counterfeiting and commercial illegalism, there is a long list of illegalities increased during the long periods of lockdown and now due to the impact of the return of the economic sanctions imposed on Russia which slow down the companies that, between loss of turnover and higher costs, have to deal with a cost of over 30 billion euros in total and which puts about 200 thousand regular jobs at risk. however, the overall perception was the overall perception, 12% of companies in the tertiary sector reported it, of the safety levels: the data is more accentuated in the large cities with 16.2% but it reached 16.6% in those in the South. Concern is gripping above all businesses in the food retail trade, with 15.1%, and hotels with 20%. Not only. Perceived insecurity goes hand in hand with a worsening of the quality of life: while 64.9% of companies found degradation phenomena in their area of activity, 1 out of 5 considered the level of quality of life to worsen in the area in which it operates . Data that becomes more marked in large cities where the deterioration of the metropolis is reported by 70% of companies. A deficit, that of urban decorum, felt by 52% of the companies located in the suburbs of large cities while the historic centers, between 10 thousand and 50 thousand inhabitants, are more cared for for 88.2% of the companies interviewed. usury, which for 27% of companies, 14% more, is the criminal phenomenon that recorded the greatest increase in 2021, more than illegal but even more than racketeering and 21% theft, the Confcommercio study draws a trend more marked in large cities but especially in the South where it is indicated on the increase by 30% of companies. A phenomenon that “worries” 17.7% of the consulted entrepreneurs who fear that they will end up exposed in a vicious circle that ultimately blocks the development of companies and slows down their growth. Fear is stronger in large cities (22%), in the South (19.1%) and for non-food retail businesses, 20%. Yet companies do not seem to want to give up easily: despite 11% of entrepreneurs having received direct news of attempts to usury or extortion in the area in which they operate, the Confcommercio Report still says, 58.4% of them believe that the extortion phenomenon should be denounced; 33.6% declare that they would not know and only 6.4% think they can not do anything. Opposite behaviors that are polarized in the South where usury is perceived to increase more than elsewhere but also where if 66.7% of entrepreneurs would be ready to file a complaint, 41% would not know what to do together with that 9% for which ‘there would be nothing to be done’. This dichotomy, we read in the Report, probably determined by the greater exposure to criminal phenomena in the South than in the North. The ability to react, however, is still evident from the study, is inversely proportional to the size of the territory where the company is located: the smaller the city, the more paralyzing the attitude towards the crime. If already a lower propensity to report is recorded in medium and large cities, around 52% of entrepreneurs who report the report, in inhabited centers with less than 10 thousand inhabitants the inability to react with respect to these phenomena is more pronounced (the 42.1% of entrepreneurs declared that they would not know what to do) “Criminal phenomena, and in particular usury, feed on crises. We therefore do not tire of asking for moratoriums, tax and credit moratoriums”, is the appeal that launches Carlo Sangalli, president of Confcommercio. “It is a spiral, where even when you have the impression of going straight you end up in a deep and blind alley. It is really difficult to have the strength to get out of these situations by yourself. We are here to say, we are here to repeat, to all those entrepreneurs, women and men who today see only darkness, that if they look around, raise their heads, they will see that they are not alone “, he explains again.