NCJ Number
191725
Journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: Autumn 2001 Pages: 259-272
Date Published
2001
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on the actions taken by the Member States of the European Union (EU) against organized crime and transborder crime.
Abstract
Despite many efforts by the EU to develop a joint definition of the term “organized crime,” each individual EU Member State continues to have its own approach to, strategic policy. Strategies to control organized crime figure increasingly more prominently on the EU agenda. The first steps towards a joint approach were made in 1992. The question as to whether the national criminal law systems within the EU actually converge was addressed in research that showed which EU legal instruments are likely to have a converging effect. A first general finding is that all Member States have to some extent drawn attention to organized crime, which is also reflected in the organizational structure. A concise summary of the most relevant changes and the structural characteristics per Member State is presented. The countries represented are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Some of the actions taken by these countries to reduce organized crime include incorporating a department specializing in organized crime into the national government, developing multidisciplinary teams aimed at the various fields of organized crime specific to that country, and implementing international police cooperation departments to handle transborder crime. It can be concluded that little or no reforms within national investigative and prosecution authorities may be directly traced back to the regulatory impulses of the EU. However, the increasing acknowledgement of the problem of organized crime has contributed to reforms or reorganizations. In nearly all EU Member States, this has led to some increase in scale and/or centralization in order to improve the national coordination of investigation and prosecution. Although a convergence of systems has not yet been realized, the European process of integration has increased the transparency and knowledge of one another’s systems. 4 footnotes, 1 table, 2 references