EC Proposes New Initiative to Combat Organized Crime

On June 2, 2005, the European Commission adopted a Communication on "developing a strategic concept on tackling organized crime" which includes strengthening tools and improving enforcement cooperation, improving the use of, and strengthening, existing bodies, and improving legislation where needed. Technological evolution and increasing globalization provide new opportunities for organized crime (OC) groups. To prevent and counteract OC, knowledge about OC, OC groups and vulnerabilities of the licit sectors must be gathered and updated to develop better tools. The future EU crime statistics system should collect information from law enforcement agencies, review quantitative information based on citizen and business surveys, and measure crime and victimization in specific groups to aid decision-making in different policy areas...[more]