Abstract
This chapter examines trends in crime and criminal justice in Europe, the nature of European criminology and the research topics of interest to criminologists who study European societies. It is highly ironic that although criminology as a discipline clearly stems from the European intellectual tradition, present-day European criminology struggles for its own identity and recognition. This chapter therefore examines current issues in European criminology as framed by the history of the discipline in Europe and its subsequent development across the Atlantic. We will also contextualize this chapter by discussing crime and criminal justice in Europe as influenced by trends and pressures towards convergence or divergence.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, homicide may or may not include “vehicular homicide”, infanticide and assaults resulting in death; burglary may or may not include cases where the offender entered through an open door or window, and assault may or may not require a certain degree of injury.
- 2.
The term “transnational crime” is coming into general usage to refer to an offence with a point of contact in two or more countries. For example, an offender may cross a border in order to commit a crime (as with drug trafficking, smuggling or trafficking in persons) or to flee justice. Another example is where an offender commits an offence in one country that has an effect in another country (cybercrime, international fraud and money laundering). The term has been developed primarily to maintain a distinction with international crimes, which are widely understood to be offences that are so serious that most if not all countries agree internationally on measures for their prevention and for bringing the offenders to justice. Prime examples of international crimes are war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
- 3.
A possible source of confusion: the Council of Europe and the European Union are different inter-governmental organizations. The European Union currently consists of 27 Member States and covers most of Western and Central Europe. Its top decision-making body is called the European Council of Ministers, or the European Council for short. The Council of Europe, in turn, today has 44 Member States and covers almost all of Europe, East and West, North and South.
- 4.
More formally known as the European Communities.
- 5.
As can be assumed, Member States have different views on where, exactly, the border lies between the maintenance of law and order on one hand and cooperation in policing and in criminal matters on the other.
- 6.
The requirement of double criminality is strongly entrenched in international cooperation in criminal matters. In essence, it means that country A will not provide assistance or extradite a suspect to country B for an offence, unless this is an offence also in country A.
- 7.
Along much the same lines, the Hague program (which followed the Tampere program) states that the approximation of substantive criminal law facilitates mutual recognition of judgements and judicial decisions and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters having a cross-border dimension (Section 3.3.2).
- 8.
At the time of this writing, the results of the referendum in Ireland in June 2008 mean that the European Union will once again have to enter into a “period of reflection”. Several outcomes are possible, ranging from totally abandoning the Lisbon Treaty, to making some slight adjustments, and holding a new referendum in Ireland. Even if the Lisbon Treaty is abandoned, however, the problems will remain in EU decision-making, and undoubtedly the search for a solution in respect of cooperation in policing and criminal justice would follow the same general lines.
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Barberet, R., Joutsen, M. (2010). Crime and Justice. In: Immerfall, S., Therborn, G. (eds) Handbook of European Societies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-88199-7_7
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