Developing An Eu Level Offence Classification System

In the EU area of freedom, security, and justice, one of the main deficiencies is the lack of cross-country comparable data on crime and criminal justice. The importance of progress in this domain - especially in the context of the identification of best practices in the fight against crime - has been identified on several occasions. The main difficulty lies in the comparability of data or the guarantee that exchanged data is understood in the same way by all actors. In March 2007, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security launched a call for a Study on the Development of an EU Level Offence Classification System and an Assessment of Its Feasibility to Supporting the Implementation of the Action Plan to Develop an EU Strategy to Measure Crime and Criminal Justice (The Crime Statistics Project [CSP]). This book contains the final report of that Project. In the context of the project, the EU Level Offence Classification System (EULOCS) was created. Its aim is not to become yet another compelling system that requires Member States to further harmonize domestic criminal law or to adjust national data models, but to be a reference index that could serve the different needs in the wider area of justice and home affairs. According to its authors, the area of justice and home affairs could benefit from using EULOCS as a bench-mark, increasing the internal coherence of EU's criminal policy. This book is essential reading for EU policy makers, judicial and law enforcement authorities throughout the Union, as well as those in a broader international context. It will be an asset to everyone involved in or taking an interest in the production of meaningful and comparable data on crime and criminal justice in Europe.

The EU Level Offence Classification System (EULOCS) brings together the current EU substantive criminal law acquis, building essentially on offence definitions referred to in legal instruments included in the EU Justice and Home Affairs (EU JHA) acquis. In doing so, EULOCS clarifies the scope between EU competence and national sovereignty with regard to defining criminal behavior. With this book, EULOCS is bench-marked as a reference index for serving various needs in the broader EU criminal policy area, having the potential to significantly enhance the internal coherence thereof. The proposed reference index, with offence definitions inherent to it, fundamentally addresses the problem created by the organic elaboration and adoption of legal instruments at the EU level, making reference to certain offence categories the scope or definition whereof is most often either not clarified or indicated, or left to the discretion of the individual Member States. Before elaborating on the creation of EULOCS - the methodology used, its main characteristics, and the potential for further development in the coming years - this book contains a brief overview of the incoherence in the EU JHA field and a reference to the EU study to implement the Action Plan to measure crime and criminal justice, conducted for the European Commission in the course of 2008-2009, in the context of which EULOCS has been created. Most importantly, the full EULOCS, with all its complementary variables and context fields, has been inserted. This book is essential reading for EU policy makers, judicial and law enforcement authorities throughout the Union, as well as those in a broader international context. It will be particularly appealing also to the research community and anyone involved in or taking an interest in justice and home affairs or criminal policy initiatives in the EU.

This book starts from the observation that criminal law is different in each of the EU's Member States: (1) what constitutes as an offense in one Member State does not necessarily constitute as an offense in another member state; (2) where offenses are equally criminalized in all Member States, the sanction levels may still vary; and (3) more generally, the position of the offenses in the entirety of the justice system may vary. The question arises: to what extent are those so-called offense diversities an obstacle for EU policy making and to what extent is it feasible to overcome those obstacles? The book underpins the need for the development of an EU offense policy, using the common criminalization acquis as a center piece. It argues that the common criminalization acquis can help: to ensure comparability of crime statistics * to avoid redundant double criminality testing * to overcome evidence gathering difficulties * to clarify the mandates of the EU level actors * to identify the equivalent national sentence * to scope the taking account of prior convictions. The only condition: the development of a comprehensive, consistent, and well-balanced EU offense policy. This book contains the conclusions of author Wendy De Bondt's publication-based doctoral thesis defended at Ghent University in June 2012. It will be essential reading for policy makers, both at the national and European level, in any policy field that is linked to offenses.

In today's globalized society, an international exchange of ideas and views is indispensable within the field of social sciences, including criminology and criminal justice studies. The research group Governance of Security (GofS) fosters contemporary international discourses on issues of crime and crime control. In 2008, GofS started a research paper series, combining theoretical and empirical articles on issues reflecting the research activities of GofS. This research group is a collaboration between Ghent University and Ghent University College in Belgium. GofS concentrates its research around the study of administrative and judicial policy that have been developed with respect to new issues of crime and insecurity. The GofS series - Governance of Security Research Papers (GofS) - is published by Maklu Publishing (Belgium). Readings on Criminal Justice, Criminal Law and Policing - Volume 2 of GofS's series Governance of Security Research Papers - includes the following: Punishment across Borders: The Rationales behind International Execution of Sentences . Interpreting the Concept of 'Discretionary Power' within the Execution of Sentences: A Comparison between the Belgian and French Situation . Esperanto for EU Crime Statistics: Towards Common European Offense Definitions in an EU-level Offense Classification System . Developing a Framework for the Legal Rights of Victims and Witnesses . What Can European Institutions and the International Criminal Court Learn from Each Other? . Purpose Limitation in EU-US Data Exchange in Criminal Matters: The Remains of the Day . Some Criminal Law Reflections on the Sexual Transmission of HIV . Reading about Crime in Post-Intervention Societies: A Critical Assessment . Policing and Leadership: The Case of the Belgian Chiefs of the Local Police . Reflections on the Possible Integration of Intelligence-Led Policing into Community Policing: The Belgian Case . Reliability and Correlational Validity of Police Interview Competences: Assessing the Stability of the Police Interview Competency Inventory . The Role of Europol in Joint Investigation Teams: A Foretaste of an Executive European Police Office? . Checking Aspects of a "Nodal Orientation" for Policing the Port of Antwerp.

EU and International Crime Control focuses on intrinsic EU criminal policy aspects, including its transatlantic cooperation with the US. Additionally, the book examines anti-money laundering control, counter-strategies of criminal organizations, and police torture. Chapters include: Appreciating Approximation: Using Common Offense Concepts to Facilitate Police and Judicial Cooperation in the EU * Approximation and Mutual Recognition of Procedural Safeguards of Suspects and Defendants in Criminal Proceedings throughout the European Union * Shaping the Competence of Europol: An FBI Perspective * Towards a Coherent EU Policy on Outgoing Data Transfers for Use in Criminal Matters? The Adequacy Requirement and the Framework Decision on Data Protection in Criminal Matters: A Transatlantic Exercise in Adequacy * The International Private Security Industry as Part of the European Union Security Framework: A Critical Assessment of the French EU Presidency White Paper * The Anti-Money Laundering Complex on a Crime Control Continuum: Perceptions of Risk, Power and Efficacy * The Use of Counterstrategies by Criminal Organizations: 'Intimidation and the Use of Violence against Police Officers' * Police Torture in China and Its Causes.

Since the early 1990s, cross-border police and judicial cooperation has become a very important domain of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty – if accepted by all the Member States – will certainly be a major stimulus to its further development in the field of internal security as well as in the field of external policy. In any event, the recent proposal for a new third comprehensive policy programme with regard to the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice – the so-called Stockholm Programme – foreshadows some of the changes the Brussels institutions and the Member States would like to embrace in the coming years. This book contains the contributions of scholars and practitioners to a conference on the future of police and judicial cooperation in the European Union that took place in November 2008 at Tilburg University. Referring to what has been achieved in this domain since the Treaty of Maastricht, these papers not only assess the proposals that have been put forward in successive policy documents relating to the Stockholm Programme, but they also pinpoint to the ongoing problems in the theory and practice of police and judicial cooperation within the European Union and to the ways in which these questions could best be solved.

Discussions of the possibility to attribute liability to legal persons for committing offenses are far from new. The EU landscape however is scattered. Although there are obligations for the Member States to introduce liability for legal persons committing offenses, diversity remains as to: the offenses that may trigger liability * the legal persons that may be held liable * the attribution theories and mechanisms used * the type of liability, which may be either penal, administrative, or civil * the sanctions that legal persons may incur. Consistent policy making requires an identification of the main commonalities and differences in view of being able to adequately reflect them in cross-national policy initiatives. Hence, the European Commission launched a call for tender for a study on the issue, which was awarded to the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP). The results are published in this book. Based on comparative legal analysis in the EU27, recommendations are formulated relating to the EU approximation policy (amongst others to reconsider the concept of a 'legal person' and to look into the need for specific 'legal person'-offenses), the functioning of mutual recognition (amongst others to extend the current mutual recognition instrumentarium), the exchange of information (amongst others to develop a criminal records policy), and procedural safeguards (amongst others to secure equivalent protection outside a criminal liability context). In other words, a helicopter view is taken to ensure consistent EU policy making. (Series: Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy [IRCP] - Vol. 44)

The EU now possesses a clear legal basis for taking action on criminal law matters and steering the policy and practice of Member States in relation to crime and criminal law. However, for what is now an important area of law, there remains a striking absence or uncertainty regarding its theoretical basis, its legitimacy and its conceptual vocabulary. This book offers a review of the significance of EU criminal law and crime policy as a rapidly emerging phenomenon in European law and governance. Bringing together an international set of contributors, the book questions the nature, role and objectives of such 'criminal law', its relationship with other areas of EU policy and law, and the established rules of criminal law and criminal justice at the Member State level. Taking up such subjects as the application of criminal law across national boundaries and in the broader European context, effective enforcement, and the working out of a new European policy, the book helps to structure an increasingly significant subject in law which is still finding its direction. The book will be of great use and interest to researchers and students of EU law, criminal justice, and criminology.