Evidence Based EU Criminal Policy Making: In Search of Matching Data

EU criminal policy making is a relatively new policy domain and its credibility is said to be undermined by the lack of an evidence base. Because the EU claims to pursue evidence based policy making, this justifies reviewing the mechanisms put in place to that end. To properly evaluate the evidence base in EU criminal policy making, an assessment is made of the availability of comparable crime statistics. Crime statistics, a vital data source for criminal policy making, are considered highly problematic at EU level due to (amongst other reasons) the differences in the definition of the offences. In spite of the good intentions that can be read into the repeated acknowledgement of the importance of crime statistics and the efforts to commonly define EU worthy offences, a thorough empirical analysis leads to the conclusion that we are still in search of valid EU level data with respect to the EU level offences. The EU as a policy maker does not take its responsibility to ensure the availability of the necessary comparable crime statistical data serious enough.