NCJ Number
173863
Date Published
1995
Length
343 pages
Annotation
International cooperation in criminal law enforcement is a policy issue of central importance for Europe in the 1990s, and this book examines emerging patterns of international cooperation, the harmonization of criminal law and criminal procedure, law enforcement strategies, police organization and discipline, and the politics of immigration and civil liberties.
Abstract
In a Europe without internal border controls, there is widespread agreement on the objectives of closer police cooperation, especially since the development of a borderless Europe has fueled fears that crime will spread across national boundaries and become increasingly immune to efforts of the police and other law enforcement agencies to control it. The crime problem in Europe is discussed in terms of its dimensions and various manifestations. Information is provided on European police institutions and political, legal, and organizational contexts within which these institutions operate. The establishment of new forms of law enforcement cooperation for a borderless Europe and the relationship between policing and the broader domain of politics are addressed. Consideration is also paid to the relationship between the nature of criminal acts and purposes of European police cooperation, the distinction between criminality and the repression of criminality, limits to the professional authority of the police, and political and ideological features of law enforcement cooperation. Finally, the changing conceptualization of internal and external security in Europe is examined. References, footnotes, and tables