Other works include I gattopardi (2010), Operazione Penelope (2010), Football clan (2012), La nuova Autorità nazionale anticorruzione (2015), Il male italiano.
Cantone was born in Naples, the son of a state official (his father) and a pharmacist (his mother),[1] Mimmina Scialò, who died on 12 September 2019; he has two brothers, Michele and Bruno.
[3][4] Cantone graduated in law at the University of Naples Federico II with the intention of becoming a lawyer and entered the Italian magistrature in 1991,[5][6] participating in a competition for 160 posts on the advice to undertake this career provided by his uncle, Nicola Giovannone, a marshal major of the Guardia di Finanza.
[11] In December 2011, Cantone was appointed by Filippo Patroni Griffi, the then Minister for Public Administration and Simplification, as a member of the commission that developed the first anti-corruption proposals of the Monti government,[12] from which the Severino Law arose.
[5] On 18 June 2013, he was appointed by the then Italian prime minister Enrico Letta as a member of the task force for the development of proposals on the fight against organized crime in Italy led by Reggio Calabria prosecutor Nicola Gratteri.
[17] On the initiative of Cantone, the institute of collaborative supervision was inaugurated on an experimental basis, i.e. the preliminary verification of the legitimacy of the tender procedures by the National Anti-Corruption Authority, with the aim of avoiding administrative disputes and reducing the risks of corruption.
[19] He also participated in the work of the international consultancy on justice, corruption, organized crime, and mafias, which was established at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in Vatican.
[31] In March 2024, Cantone was called to testify as part of the Antimafia Commission auditions related to the alleged illegal dossiers of many public figures and politicians.
[6] In April 2012, Operazione Penelope was published in the Frecce series by Mondadori; it was a book where Cantone addressed the topic of mafias by analyzing an answer to a question, which was contained in the subtitle of the text "Why the Fight Against Organized Crime and Criminal Activity Risks Never Ending".
From the Homeric poem, where Penelope creates and undoes while waiting for Odysseus, Cantone took this metaphor as a model, analyzing the dynamics that revolve around the mafias and the possibilities of succeeding in the fight against them.
[6] Taking up a phrase pronounced by Pope Francis in Scampia,[48][49][50] the book reviewed, as stated in its subtitle, "all the effects on our daily lives of the disease that risks killing Italy", from healthcare to education and from politics to procurement public.
[51] This was followed up by La corruzione spiegata ai ragazzi che hanno a cuore il futuro del loro Paese (2018), which was born from the suggestion made by numerous students and teachers during the presentation of the previous book in schools to create a text that was designed specifically for younger people.
Prevenire e reprimere per una cultura della legalità, which was written for the Piccola biblioteca per un paese normale series and published in 2023 by Vita e pensiero, Cantone attempted to provide a complete picture of the mafia phenomenon, including definition, ways in which corruption manifests itself and how to measure it, combat it, and prevent it; it was accompanied by historical references, anthropological analyzes, and prospects for the future.