The experience of social reporting in Italian judicial offices. The laboratory of the public prosecutor’s office in Naples Paolo Ricci Department of Political Science, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, and Pietro Pavone Department of Law, Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy Abstract Purpose – The paper aims to reach a better understanding of accountability and social reporting in the Italian justice system, by examining the state of the art of both literature and practice. The case study highlights the critical elements in drawing up the social report of one of the most important Prosecutor Offices in Italy. Design/methodology/approach – The case study analyzes the activities of the actors involved in the report building process by detailing all the steps involved in a research diary, in order to examine such process from the inside, thus reversing its perspective. Findings – The study shows that both the lack of guidelines for judicial administrations and a consolidated trend of transforming administrative facts into documents useful to stakeholders slow down the evolution of practices, which are stuck in a perpetual trial stage. Research limitations/implications – The limitations are mainly related to the adoption of a single case study, which does not include any comparison with other reporting experiences in the justice sector. Originality/value – This paper adds evidence to the theoretical debate on social reporting in the justice sector which has so far received the attention of a limited number of scholars. Furthermore, unlike other studies focusing exclusively on the final report while overlooking the process that turns input into output, this research deals with the core of the social reporting process and practices in their development, capturing their most intimate and controversial aspects from the inside. Keywords Social reporting, Judicial system, Public sector, Sustainability, Laboratory Paper type Case study Introduction Justice is necessary to promote a healthy economy and to achieve an ethical and social balance, by guaranteeing sustainable development and “intra-generational and inter- generational justice” (Greiling et al., 2015). If one only focuses on the beneficial impact for the economy and society of well- functioning national judicial systems, it is possible to say that the institutional debate is alive. The OECD (2013) highlights that “well-functioning judiciaries” promote the efficient production and distribution of goods and services, certainty of property rights and execution of contracts, preventing companies from adopting costly opportunistic behavior. Furthermore, crimes that are particularly widespread in Italy such as financial ones (bankruptcy, fraud, tax evasion, etc.), seriously erode public trust and consequently hinder the proper functioning of markets and the economy (International Development Law Organization, 2014). According to the World Economic Forum (2013), the dependence of some judicial systems on the relevant political sphere carries with it significant costs for the Social reporting in Italian judicial offices The authors wish to thank the Chief Prosecutor and the staff of the public Prosecutor's Office in Naples for their cooperation. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm Received 11 April 2020 Revised 21 July 2020 2 September 2020 Accepted 4 September 2020 International Journal of Public Sector Management © Emerald Publishing Limited 0951-3558 DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-04-2020-0102