Burden of crimes

The Burden of Crime in the EU
Research Report: A Comparative Analysis of the European Crime and Safety Survey (EU ICS) 2005

This research project has received a grant to the budget by the European Commission under the specific call FP6-2002-SSP-1, policy oriented research. The views expressed are purely those of the authors of the report and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.

Max Planck Institute

2 Highlights

EU ICS 2005:

Burden of Crime in the EU

Authors, contributors: Jan van Dijk, Robert Manchin, John van Kesteren, Sami Nevala, Gergely Hideg

Highlights
A European consortium comprising Gallup Europe1; UNICRI, Italy, Gallup Hungary, the Max Planck Institute, Germany, CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg and GeoX Ltd., Hungary conducted a sample survey among inhabitants of the European Union about their experiences with crime and law enforcement. The survey was carried out in the 15 old member states of the Union plus Poland, Hungary and Estonia. The study was co-funded by the European Commission, DG RTD. Preliminary results were presented at a workshop convened at Gallup/EU headquarters in Brussels on 21 November, 2005. The event was attended by representatives of the EC and stakeholders from several member states. Besides the current volume, a series of working papers have also been drafted, each of them dealing with a particular aspect of safety and criminality in a more in-depth way. The analyses and research data are available on the consortium website at http://www.gallup-europe.be/EU ICS.

Victimisation Rates
Key results indicate that levels of common crimes such as burglaries, thefts, robberies and assaults have decreased significantly over the past ten years everywhere in the Union, with the possible exceptions of Belgium and Ireland. In 2004 levels of crime were most elevated in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Estonia, The Netherlands and Denmark and lowest in Spain, Hungary,