Crime, money and criminal mobility in Europe

Europe has the image of a slow moving old lady. However, this is a misleading picture. As a matter of fact, the ‘Old Continent’ is bristling with life and mobility, and many fear that much of this is of a criminal nature. This criminal mobility is supposed to be aggravated by the accompanying movement of crime-money. It is true, Europe is ‘on the move’, legally and criminally. But this is all but a new phenomenon. Europe has always been an open space in whichpeople were moving around looking for (illegal) opportunities. This has not changed basically. Some of the wandering luck seekers operate aspredators, looking for objects to steel. Others offer services which areprohibited, either itself or in the way in which they are organised. The oldest of those services being sex. Naturally, the crime-monies from these flexible criminal economic activities have to move too. To block this financial movement an elaborate defence system has been established:the anti-laundering chain of financial ‘fortresses’. In addition to the crime money threat there is the threat of corruption: though the ‘old’ MemberStates of the EU have their corruption affairs too, there is a real concernabout corruption in the new or candidate Member States. In this ninth volume of the Cross-border Crime Colloquium twenty experts from leading European institutions shed light on the various aspects of crime, money-laundering and criminal mobility in Europe.They present the outcomes of their research projects and the analysis of mobile criminal groups in Europe, the organisation of sex service between Eastern and Western Europe, surprising aspects of the money-laundering regime and corruption in new and candidate Member States. The book deals with these facets of criminal Europe as wellas with the emerging crime in a licit market: abuse and unsafety in thelabour market, the forgotten but largest mobile crime-market in Europe.