Effectiveness of EU Criminal Policy

• In Event: The Future of EU Criminal Policy

Abstract

The search for a soul or a leading principle for EU criminal policy has proven elusive. One of the key issues here is the near impossibility of aligning the fundamental EU policy objectives of creating an area of freedom but also an area of security and justice. Leaving aside this fundamental policy issue, we can ascertain that EU criminal policy seeks to pursue on the one hand deterrence, law enforcement and crime prevention objectives but also more specific objectives of creating stronger fundamental rights safeguards within this field. The major question asked here is to what extent the European Union has been successful to date in achieving these objectives and by which standard we assess success or effectiveness of these policies.

For those scholars working in EU criminal law, ‘effectiveness’ is largely seen as a ‘given’ key principle that should guide policymaking and interpretation of the relevant Treaties, rules and regulations. For social scientists and criminologists overall effectiveness of policies and criminal policies is a concept elusive of meaning but still fundamentally a concept which can be measured, assessed and quantified. This major project seeks to intertwine these different scholarly tribes to both conceptually theorize and make sense of effectiveness as a public policy concept but also to assess and if possible, measure the effectiveness of EU criminal policy employing specific case studies and country studies.

Author

• Jacob Oberg, University of Southern Denmark