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EAST IS EAST, AND WEST IS WEST;
AND NEVER THE TWO WILL MEET?
A COMPARISON OF VALIDATED
CRIME STATISTICS ACROSS EUROPE
——o—
JAN VAN Dyk?
This paper presents comparative statistics on victimisation by common crime
(thefts and assaults/muggings), homicide and organised crime/corruption in the
four geographical regions of Europe (Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern)
for the period 2006-2019. Results indicate that levels of common crime and
homicide in the four regions have declined and somewhat converged between
2006 and 2019 but levels of organised crime have not, and remain significantly
higher in Eastern and Southern Europe than elsewhere. The declining rates of
common crime are interpreted as a bonus for increased economic integration
and growth and improved private and public security across the regions. The
findings on organised crime are interpreted as resulting from enduring deficits
in the institutional capacities of several countries in the Southern and Eastern
parts of Europe.
INTRODUCTION
My first encounter with Prof Karoly Bard was in the elevator of a hotel in Helsinki
during one of the first international conferences organised by HEUNI in the 1970s.
Somewhat patronizingly I complimented him with his contribution to the debate in
impeccable English. He retorted that his proficiency in English was not so surprising
since his mother was an English teacher. Over the years we have met at several
HEUNL-based and other international conferences where he was for many years
one of the few outstanding criminological scholars from the formerly socialist part
of Europe. A suitable topic of my contribution to his Festschrift seems therefore a
review of trends in various types of crime across Europe, the old continent. The key
question to be addressed is whether trends in crime in the Western and Eastern
parts of Europe have been converging or diverging over the past fifteen years.
' Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement in
Amsterdam. Emeritus professor in victimology, Tilburg University.
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