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13. The results of the interviews conducted with the most active prosecutor’s offices: best practices in judicial activitiesprosecutors of Genoa, interceptions on their own do not yield an accuratereconstruction of criminal dynamics, at least not in cases where exploitationprevails over the simple smuggling of migrants: the method must be used inconjunction with other sources of investigative information (victim and co-suspectstatements), as specified in the next sub-section.B) T) THE TAKING OF INFORMATION FROM PERSONS INFORMED OF THE FACTS AND QUESTIONING BY THETJUDICIAL POLICE AND THE PROSECUTORThe statements provided by persons possessing inside information are, as said,important starting points for investigations. Such informants are considered to beamong the most effective investigative instruments (also for the trial, see § 13.2),particularly at the prosecutor’s offices dealing with cases of smuggling forexploitation. In areas of the country where the offence of migrant smugglingpredominates, greater use is made of other investigative techniques (interceptions,surveillance), but in this case too the questioning of smuggled persons is animportant source of information for the investigation. We anticipate here that,because of its procedural importance, information is sometimes gathered fromvictims using a specific procedure of evidence verification, the incidente probatorioor pre-trial evidence hearing, which is described below (see § 13.1.6).The model created by the prosecutor office of Genoa is an interesting example ofhow improvements came be made to the procedures for gathering information fromvictims of trafficking and smuggling.The Genoa prosecutors have divided investigations by geographical area in order todeal with the problem of the cultural differences among the ethnic groups to whichvictims belong, given that the difficulties for victims to report their exploiters varyaccording to the nationality. For example, it has been noted at the Genoa office thatthe main factors which prevent Albanian trafficking victims from giving fullstatements are the fear of physical violence, subjugation to the clan, and distrust ofthe police, while those for Nigerian women are of a different kind (languagebarriers, fear of voodoo ‘spells’). From these observations one can infer thatknowledge of cultural differences and of the specific nature of the exploitation isfundamental for communicating with the victims and acquiring as muchinformation as possible. Whence derived the decision to ‘specialise’ the work of theprosecutor’s offices by geographical area.In the case of migrant smuggling, it often happens that, during the questioning ofkey informants immediately after the criminal event, the police are unable to makeadequate use of the knowledge possessed by the people questioned. Theprosecutor’s offices of Brindisi and Lecce have issued specific instructions to thejudicial police so that they follow a uniform procedure when collecting information.The purpose of these instructions is to standardise the procedure for questioningkey informants. The prosecutor’s offices have drawn up a set of questions to be putto all informants, the intention being to standardise the collection of data useful forinvestigations. This has yielded two important results: uniform information (to beentered in specific databases, see § 13.1.5), and guaranteed accuracy ofstatements.210