Ninfa Contigiani was a pupil of prof. Mario Sbriccoli.

In 2004 she got her Ph.D. in History of law (Thesis title: La legislazione penale pontificia. Dai Regolamenti gregoriani ai tentativi di riforma. (1831-1857)/ The papal penal law. From penal rules of the Gregorio XVI to the attempts to reform (1831-1857)).

Then she obtained a Research grant from the University of Macerata and she was kept working on the criminal justice in the Papal States, Nineteenth-century. Especially, she has focalized on the centrality role of papal judges in the penal justice administration.

Since 2007 she is working with Prof. Luigi Lacchè and she is fellow of its research group.

She got a Post-doc research grant in 2007 and she passed a public competition for research worker indefinitely in 2008.

She teaches History of Penal law, History of social legislation and History of politic and institutional phenomena contemporary in the Faculty of Law of the University of Macerata.

In addition, she is member of Editorial Board of the «Giornale di storia costituzionale/Journal of Constitutional History» Macerata, Eum.

She studied on the repression of blood crimes within families between Nineteenth and Twentieth Century.

For her Monography, since 2011 she is working on the reasons of blood as original character of the Italian civil and penal unification, but in general she is working on the blood as foundational element of the legal construction of the family and citizenship from the kingdom of Italy.

In addition, the family has become a focus of interest as a subject of social policies in the Italian welfare, in comparison with European models of social security.