Organised Crime and Law Enforcement Cooperation

Our rigorous evaluation and appraisal of interventions in the fight against organised crime and corruption offers practice-focused support to European institutions, governments and national and international law enforcement agencies

Research, commentary, and events

Project
Strengthening the Fight against Serious and Organised Crime in the EU
RAND Europe examined three topics that could be considered ‘tools’ that member states can deploy in the fight against organised crime, in line with the aims of the 2021–2025 EU Strategy to Tackle Organised Crime.
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A quantitative analysis of the costs of corruption in the EU
EU action to support member states' fight to reduce corruption could generate considerable financial savings and improvements to societal wellbeing.
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Examining the use of Out of Court Disposals for adults with health vulnerabilities
RAND Europe, in partnership with Get the Data and Skills for Justice, has been commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to conduct a study on how police in England and Wales use Out of Court Disposals (OOCDs) to support adults with health-related vulnerabilities.
Project
Study to support an evaluation of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL)
CEPOL is the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training – an agency of the European Union dedicated to training law enforcement officials that is based in Budapest, Hungary. RAND Europe and Ernst & Young (EY) assessed the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU-added value of CEPOL and its working practices.
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Preventive approaches to organised crime in the Netherlands
Preventive methods to fight organised crime focus on addressing the underlying causes and factors. Researchers found that preventive instruments tend to focus on situational prevention, and that there is little robust evidence on the effectiveness of these instruments in the field of organised crime.
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Trafficking human beings in the European Union
At the request of the European Commission and to inform proposals to revise EU legislation, RAND Europe is evaluating the 2011 EU directive on preventing human trafficking and outlining the priority areas for improvement.
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Examining corruption at two of Europe's gateways
Researchers are examining corruption in relation to subversive crime at Schiphol Airport and the Port of Rotterdam, two facilities in the Netherlands that form a gateway to the European market.
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Identifying an approach to measure the illicit market for tobacco
To capture the total volume of the illicit tobacco trade in the EU and member states, as well as distinguish between the legal and illegal market, types of tobacco products, and types of illicit trade, researchers propose a combination of five methods and three cross-validating resources.
Off Site
Hulme discusses research on serious and organised crime
Research leader Shann Hulme discusses her report, Mapping the Risk of Serious and Organised Crime Infiltrating Legitimate Businesses, with Paul Adamson on the Encompass podcast "In Conversation."
Project
Liaison and Diversion services save money through reduced sentencing
An evaluation of NHS England's Liaison and Diversion programme found that it successfully engages people with a broad range of vulnerabilities and halves their likelihood of receiving a custodial sentence.
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Assessing the economic value of illicit markets in the EU
The aggregate annual revenues of the nine main criminal markets in the EU ranged from €92 to €188 billion in 2019, according to research that examined the scale, actors, modus operandi and trends in these markets.
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Technology and the future of cybercrime
To prepare for and mitigate the impact of emerging technologies on cybercrime, Estonia could consider broad anti-cybercrime capacity building; seek legal, regulatory and organisational agility; and invest in technological expertise, skills and research.
Commentary
How Better Support Can Be Provided to Ex–Service Personnel in the Criminal Justice System
Former armed forces personnel make up the UK's largest group of male prisoners by occupation. What can police and government do to provide targeted support in the criminal justice system to those from a military background?
Project
What factors encourage witnesses of intimate partner violence to help?
Numerous factors discourage witnesses of intimate partner violence to report to the police or other relevant authorities. Strengthening protection for witnesses and including the option to report anonymously may help encourage witnesses to help.
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Assessing the impacts of digital government transformation in the EU
A case study on the use of body worn cameras by police forces in the UK offers an example of how governments can potentially take advantage of emerging digital technologies to address systemic challenges.
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Exploring the criminal use of Zcash and cryptocurrencies
While most transactions made with virtual coins are legitimate, cryptocurrencies have also been used for criminal purposes. Researchers found no evidence of widespread illicit use of Zcash, but that may be because malicious users do not fully understand its operating model.
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Youth justice practitioners' experiences and perceptions of AssetPlus
An evaluation of the Youth Justice Board's AssetPlus programme found that practitioners liked the ideas underpinning the programme but felt that not all potential benefits were fully being realised. The evaluators suggested several areas for improvement.
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Toolkit measures intermediate outcomes to reduce reoffending
For most people, desistance from crime is a process, rather an event. Researchers produced a user-friendly questionnaire that can be used by those working with offenders to capture ‘intermediate outcomes’ — indicators of positive changes which may signal progress towards an offence-free future.
Commentary
What Strategies Are the Best Defence Against Antisocial Behaviour at Football Events?
Football-related violence is not going away. It is therefore more important than ever that police and football authorities have evidence on what strategies work and that they share best practices with each other.
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Developing tools to assess research evidence for policymakers and practitioners
Researchers developed recommendations for the College of Policing and the Education Endowment Foundation on how to assess evidence from research studies and make evidence-informed recommendations for practitioners and policymakers.
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The economics of vulnerability disclosure
Because economic incentives play a key role in whether users, vendors, finders and coordinators disclose hardware and software vulnerabilities once they have been discovered, governments should adopt a coordinated vulnerability disclosure policy.
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Reducing violent and antisocial behaviour at football events
To help Qatar prepare for upcoming sporting events, researchers examined the nature of, and the factors associated with, antisocial and violent behaviour at football matches and how effective existing approaches are in preventing and responding to these behaviours.
Commentary
The Rules of the Game: Reducing Antisocial Behavior and Violence at Football Events
Violent behavior at football matches has garnered international media attention for decades even though the vast majority of matches pass without any significant violent incidents. Despite the widespread attention toward harmful behaviors, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of current practices targeting negative fan behavior.
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Toolbox aims to support cybersecurity capacity building
Using the GCSCC’s Cyber Security Capacity Maturity Model, researchers developed a proof-of-concept toolbox that presents guidelines and approaches for government officials and cybersecurity practitioners interested in cybersecurity capacity building.
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Linking hate speech online and hate crime
RAND and Cardiff University are analysing online hate speech data to see if it can be used to identify areas where offline hate crimes are most likely to occur. The research aims to inform strategies to prevent and address hate crimes.