Administrative Measures to Prevent and Tackle Crime: Legal Possibilities and Practical Application in EU Member States

Criminals and persons involved in serious and organized crime often do not limit their activities to purely illegal ones such as drug trafficking, fraud or property crimes. They also invest money in legal activities and businesses, for instance to exploit there venues of their crimes or to generate a legal income. Criminals may establish or take over a construction company and then tender for government contracts. The 'business processes' of most types of organized crime also require legal facilities. Authorities thus have a particular interest in preventing criminals from either using the economic infrastructure to acquire a legal income or from misusing businesses to facilitate crimes and applying their criminal proceeds towards this purpose. An administrative approach applied in addition to or coordinated with the traditional instruments of criminal law is a potentially powerful tool to prevent and combat serious and organized crime. In 2011, the European Commission awarded an ISEC grant to the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice (coordinator) to conduct a 'study on the potential for information exchanges between administrative bodies and traditional law enforcement organizations to support the use of administrative measures within EU Member States and at EU level'. Tilburg University (the Netherlands) and the KU Leuven (Belgium) conducted this research, supported by the Belgian Home Affairs Ministry

Part I General introduction; 1. Introduction; Part II The legal framework in ten EU Member States; 2. The administrative approach in Belgium; 3. The administrative approach in the Czech Republic; 4. The administrative approach in England and Wales; 5. The administrative approach in France; 6. The administrative approach in Germany; 7. The administrative approach in Italy; 8. The administrative approach in the Netherlands; 9. The administrative approach in Poland; 10. The administrative approach in Spain; 11. The administrative approach in Sweden; 12. A legal comparison of the administrative approach to serious and organized crime in the EU; Part III The administrative approach in practice; 13. Practical application of the concept; Part IV The cross-border dimension in the EU; 14. The potential for information exchange in Europe for the purpose of an administrative approach to crime; Part V Conclusions and the way forward; 15. Conclusions; 16. The road ahead.