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 the past decades, the European Union has made little progress with respect to disqualifications as a sanction mechanism for the violation of laws. The creation of some form of harmonization is necessary, but the complex nature of this specific sanction mechanism has caused policy initiatives to be postponed, time after time. In answer to a call from the European Commission, the contributors in this book have conducted a comparative legal analysis in the EU 27 and looked into the practical experiences with disqualifications from a domestic and a cross border perspective. To that end, academics, policy makers, and practitioners in the Member States have been consulted. Analysis reveals a wide variety in the typology of the disqualifications as a sanction measure, the typology of the persons to whom the disqualifications can be imposed, and the typology of the authorities involved. Furthermore, there are considerable differences with respect to the inclusion of disqualifications in the national criminal records databases. Linked thereto information on foreign disqualifications is scarce and rarely used in practice. To ensure a comprehensive and consistent policy approach, this book has come up with a so called disqualification triad, comprising: (1) unified EU-wide disqualifications, (2) mutual recognition of disqualifications, and (3) EU-wide equivalent effect of disqualifications. The functioning of the disqualification triad has been further elaborated on in three case studies, which are public procurement disqualifications, disqualifications from working with children, and driving disqualifications. In doing so, this book is essential reading for both EU and national policy makers, as well as for researchers and practitioners involved. (Series: Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy [IRCP] - No. 45)

Reviewing European policy with respect to different phases in the criminal justice chain, the contributions in this book range from looking into the extension of criminalization in the sphere of trafficking in human beings and labor exploitation, to the operability of cross-border execution of sentences involving deprivation of liberty. Most contributions look into the need to develop a conceptual framework to support future policy making, pointing to the lack thereof with respect to liability of legal persons, ne bis in idem as an EU principle, cross-border effect of disqualifications, and cooperation with private security actors. One essay looks into the public expenditure in different phases of the criminal justice chain, based on a case study on the public expenditure of Belgian drug policy. Additionally, from a historical and comparative perspective, the book analyzes specific European and Chinese interrogation rules to provide a solid context for the current situation and to support future legal reforms. (Series: Governance of Security (GofS) Research Paper - Vol. 7)

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.

CLRAE = Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. EU member states lose hundreds of billions of euros to tax evasion every year. Tax crimes have a significant impact on the functioning of national and international economies and on the global financial system. Not only do they affect the actors involved and the state that has been deprived of tax revenues, but the citizens of those states suffer too. Tax Crimes and Enforcement in the European Union presents the findings of the EU-funded PROTAX project. Chapters written by leading experts discuss EU and national legal measures and institutional practices to counter anti-money laundering, corruption, organised crime, and tax evasion. Human factors and their role in countering tax crimes are also considered as well as whistleblower protection legislation which gives readers a rounded view of current practices within the EU. This book provides a timely and valuable comparative study of the legal and institutional background of the prosecution of tax crimes, as well as an analysis of legal measures and institutional practices to combat tax crimes on national and EU levels. It also contributes to the development of an advanced European Security Model for understanding human factors in countering tax crimes. It equips policy makers and law enforcement agencies with the dynamic toolkit they need to improve their understanding of tax crimes in the EU and provides solutions for preventing, detecting, and investigating tax crimes.

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)