NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2020

Dear reader,

As a representative of Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU and as EUCPN chair, I am delighted and honoured to present to you the latest EUCPN newsletter.

Germany’s Council Presidency is marked by the coronavirus. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in recent months, including the way we work together: instead of holding meetings and conferences where we can speak to each other in person, we now come together online. This growing use of digital technology offers an opportunity which we want to make the most of. Right now, we are considering whether to organise the Best Practice Conference (BPC) and the presentation of the European Crime Prevention Award (ECPA) in early December as an online event. We are looking forward to the many exciting projects to be presented, and an online format would allow for a much larger audience and the chance to reach more practitioners at local level.
During our Presidency, we are focusing on the challenge of preventing family-based organised crime. In various European countries, organised crime and petty crime are often associated with distinct social groups, many of which are organised as clans or extended families. Individuals who wish to leave this milieu can do so only at the price of severing all ties to their families and their social environment. At the same time, young people growing up in such an environment are at high risk of viewing criminal activity as a normal way of life. With this year’s ECPA, we would like to recognise preventive approaches which reach out to these groups and help break this cycle.
Another important focus during the German Presidency is updating the Multiannual Strategy for the European Crime Prevention Network to define the objectives and measures for the next five years. We have set up two working groups: one on an evidence-based approach and one on governance. The two groups have already started working. We will collate their results and discuss them at the Board Meeting on 16 and 17 September, where we will also work out topics and content for the Multiannual Strategy.

I hope you enjoy reading this EUCPN newsletter, and I would like to thank the EUCPN Secretariat for putting it together and the Member States for their contributions.

Dr. Sonja Kock

EUCPN Chair

Preventing physical ATM attacks

'It is only a matter of time before modi operandi emerging in one country spread to other countries. This clearly indicates the need for adoption of the preventive and operational measures at the European level with private, public and law-enforcement partners working closely together'. Read more in our report, available in 22 languages.

#EUFocusDay

With a prevention campaign and local preventive initiatives, the EUCPN and 26 European countries aim to step up the fight against domestic burglary by informing citizens on how they can protect their homes. The second EU Focus Day will take place on 21 October 2020. Discover our prevention campaign and watch the new case movie.

Family-based organised crime in the Netherlands

The Centre for Crime Prevention and Security (CCV) works on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, in collaboration with the nationally involved chain, on the prevention of family-based organised crime. This requires innovative strategic cooperation on dilemmas, connecting prosecution and care, combining phenomena and breaking through intergenerational patterns. To this end, the CCV developed, among other things, the process-based approach 'the integrated method against family-based organised crime'. This autumn, the 'Organized Crime Field Lab' will facilitate a course under the heading of 'criminal exploitation'. The broadly involved chain will be challenged to come up with an in-depth innovative approach to this layered challenge: a Wicked Problem.
More info (in Dutch).

The administrative approach in the European Union

The third Handbook of the European Network on the Administrative Approach focuses on the definition and the five pillars of the administrative approach by using initiatives as examples. At the end, an overview is given on what has been done in the EU already. Download the Handbook, translated into different EU languages.

Online conference EUSPR

The European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR) organises its annual conference on 7-9 October as an online event. The theme of this year is ‘Make prevention science relevant for all: co-production and impact’. The conference in 2021 will take place in Tallinn, Estonia, on 29 September - 1 October.
Registration.

Upcoming EUCPN toolbox on family-based crime

Criminality sometimes runs in families, most of which also struggle with other problems. Our upcoming toolbox discusses what works to prevent family-based crime, with an emphasis on the need of a holistic, multi-agency preventive approach.This toolbox will be published in December under the German Presidency, view our previous toolboxes.