Cyrille Fijnaut – författare

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. Experts from different disciplines provide unprejudiced insight.

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 (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom), two ‘new’ members (the Czech Republic and Poland), a candidate country (Turkey), and three non-EU countries (Albania, Russia and Switzerland). 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.Its informed analyses and unprejudiced assessments will make Organised Crime in Europe an indispensable resource for scholars, students, practitioners, and policy-makers interested in understanding the complex phenomenon of organised crime and its related control policies in Europe.

The debate surrounding police and judicial cooperation in the European Union can be criticised for focussing too much on certain forms of cooperation or on specific problems. As a result, a thorough overview of what has been achieved in this area since the Maastricht Treatys entry into force in November 1993 is lacking. In contrast to the disjointed and mostly secret cooperation between police and judicial services in Europe prior to 1993, the current regime has established a coherent and transparent system within the EU that can only be described as revolutionary.This book discusses that peaceful revolution in light of the action programmes (the Brussels Programme, the Tampere Programme, the Hague Programme and the Stockholm Programme) which were drafted in concurrence with all major changes to the constitutional relations within the European Union: the Maastricht Treaty, the Amsterdam Treaty, the Nice Treaty, the Rome Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty. This programmatic approach makes it possible to present in a clear manner the imposing array of police and judicial agencies, facilities and networks (Europol, Schengen Information System, Eurojust, European Arrest Warrant, etc.) created through democratic processes with the aim of ensuring the security of the citizens of the European Union. In particular, the problems concerning the control of internal and external borders and with respect to the containment of terrorism demonstrate that this system urgently needs to be reinforced.It is ironic that the Brexit negotiations demonstrate the importance of the current system of police and judicial cooperation in the European Union: the United Kingdom would like to keep the great benefits of a number of its crucial components.

In the post-9/11 era, the nexus between organized crime and terrorism has raised much concern and has been widely discussed in both academic and policy circles, but is still largely misunderstood. This critical book contributes innovatively to the debate by distinguishing three types of nexus—interaction, transformation/imitation and similarities—and identifying the promoting factors of each type.With its multifaceted but complementary chapters, the book provides conceptual and theoretical frameworks for readers, as well as the evidence needed to develop more realistic, effective and humane policies to tackle organized crime, terrorism and the nexuses between them. Bringing together a range of international multidisciplinary specialists, it includes three comparative analyses of worldwide transfers of personnel, weapons and money between organized crime and terrorism and 12 case studies examining local manifestations of the nexus in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Two other chapters further review the national, European and international policies adopted and implemented so far to deal with the different nexuses.This book will be a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers in the fields of comparative law, criminal law and justice and public policy, who specialize in the analysis and control of organized crime and terrorism. It will also appeal to senior law enforcement officials and practitioners due to the counterintuitive policy implications drawn from the comparative analysis of the findings.

This book contains analyses of the concrete development and real extent of international police cooperation in Western Europe at several levels, from the bilateral level of cooperation along the Dutch-Belgian-German border to the transatlantic level of cooperation between the American and European police forces. It also contains descriptions of the official and informal viewpoints within France, United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium concerning the present state and the future of international police cooperation in the European Community.