Measuring Organised Crime In Europe

Recent years have been characterised by growing awareness among European member states about serious shortcomings to the way organised crime is measured and assessed. Currently, organised crime reports primarily generate descriptive analyses of a past situation based on law enforcement data and do not always provide the necessary information for proactive and preventive policy strategies. Therefore an EU Action Plan has been issued to develop a more future oriented and risk based methodology for the measurement of organised crime and to convert the traditional organised crime situation reports into strategic reports for planning purposes. This book is the outcome of two studies undertaken by a team composed of Belgian, Italian and Swedish researchers for the European Commission. It presents an overview of current practices in the measurement of organised crime in Europe and includes a discussion about the concept and the assessment of the impact of the phenomenon. Further the feasibility of the implementation of the existing EU Action Plan was studied and evaluated. As a result of applied research Measuring Organised Crime in Europe provides an in depth and comparative analysis of current practice in drafting organised crime reports across and by the EU and offers new ideas to improve their quality.

This volume represents the first attempt to systematically compare organised crime concepts, as well as historical and contemporary patterns and control policies in thirteen European countries. These include seven ‘old’ EU Member States, two ‘new’ members, a candidate country, and three non-EU countries. Based on a standardised research protocol, thirty-three experts from different legal and social disciplines provide insight through detailed country reports. On this basis, the editors compare organised crime patterns and policies in Europe and assess EU initiatives against organised crime.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Organised crime has become a major problem globally. Its negative impact on economies, societies, politics, human rights and security is profound: fraud, money laundering, drug, arms and human trafficking, and collusion with both law enforcement and terrorists, for example, are all significant issues. Yet specialists disagree not only on the scale and nature of organised crime, but even on its definition. This Advanced Introduction to Organised Crime explores these disagreements, examines the nature and causes of contemporary organised crime, and offers constructive suggestions on how to counter it. Key features include: • Emphasis on the rapidly changing structures of organised crime, its increasingly transnational nature and sophisticated use of the internet • Psycho-social and cultural explanations, as well as system-related ones • Exploration of the latest techniques for measuring organised crime • Detailed analyses of six of the best known transnational organised crime syndicates • A focus on human trafficking to exemplify many of the key points • Examination of the many methods that can be used – not only by states and international organisations, but also by civil society and individuals – to combat organised crime. Accessible and comprehensive, the Advanced Introduction to Organised Crime is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying criminology, political science, international relations, law and sociology. Its profound insights are invaluable to practitioners, including law enforcement officers, investigative journalists and criminologists.

Considers the origins of transnational organised crime, how it has been defined and measured, governments' policy responses and its place on the policy agendas of the UN and EU in the wake of the 'war on terror'.

The analysis of organised crime is of interest to academics, policymakers, and regulators.The approach taken is necessarily determined by the requirement for analysis and the available resources.This book is the outcome of a six-month research undertaken for the Belgian Gendarmerie, at Ghent University. It presents a methodology to measure the impact of organised crime in Belgium and its research design has been shaped primarily by the demands of applied research. In doing so the research draws extensively from a breadth of research into organised crime while being shaped by the intelligence and policy requirements of the Gendarmerie's Organised Crime unit.This is reflected in the use of a risk-management process that provides the iterative framework for the methodology. Central to this is a three-fold focus that incorporates organised crime groups, illicit markets and economic sectors. Each element relies upon a different method of analysis, however their complementarity is ensured through the organising principle of the spectrum of enterprise.The result is a methodology that is capable of being incorporated into existing systems and provides a richer form of strategic assessments regarding the impact of organised crime in Belgium.

This publication contains a number of best practice studies on effective measures to combat organised crime, corruption and money laundering, which have been prepared by the Council of Europe between 1998 and 2003. Topics covered include: witness protection; reversing the burden of proof in confiscating the proceeds of crime; interception of communication and intrusive surveillance; crime analysis; cross-border co-operation; provisions on membership in criminal organisations; co-operation against trafficking in human beings; and preventive legal measures against organised crime. The term Octopus is the name of a technical co-operation programme against corruption and organised crime initiated by the Council of Europe in 1996.

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.

Policy makers no longer focus on repressive aspects of organised crime alone, but want to be informed about coming challenges and threats to allow them to take appropriate preventive action and target their reactive response better. For that reason, there is a growing demand to change the traditional assessments into analyses that include more prospective elements about current and potential future organised crime situations to identify specific risks or threats to society. The book outlines a methodology to perform analyses of long-term threats of organised crime and scenario studies and applies this on four case studies at two different levels: three studies at Member State level (Belgium, Slovenia, and Sweden) and one at the European Union level. ln a last chapter, conclusions and recommendations about the method and its applications are presented. The developed methodological tool and the scenarios are intended as a guide for action and consideration for all actors involved in the fight against organised crime.