Crime And Criminal Justice

Main findings The total number of crimes recorded by the police in the European Union is decreasing. Until 2002, the trend was upwards. The countries where the decreases are most noticeable include the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. In some of the new Member States, crime rates peaked slightly later, but here also they are now falling. In a few southern countries such as Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Italy and Cyprus, crime rates have risen. There is also some indication among the Nordic Member States that, after a period of decreasing crime, the trend is now upwards. Underlying the total crime trends, there are different tendencies for specific types of offence. For the EU as a whole, police recorded instances of domestic burglary and drug trafficking have remained virtually unchanged since 2005, while violent crime (including robbery) and thefts of motor vehicles have fallen. The prison population rate (per head of population) remains generally much higher in most countries in the eastern part of the European Union than in the west, but it is gradually falling, while the prison populations have grown in some western Member States such as Spain and the United Kingdom.