Research line 2: Serious and Organised Crime

Letizia Paoli
Tel: (+32) (0) 16/32.52.74
Fax: (+32) (0) 16/32.54.63
E-mail: Letizia.Paoli@law.kuleuven.be
Webpage: Letizia Paoli

Address:
Herbert Hooverplein 10 - mailbox 3418
Office 00.82 - 3000 Leuven

• An Adriaenssen
• Bertrand Fincoeur
• Loes Kersten
• Johan Leman
• Evelien Van Dun
• Elke Van Hellemont
• Frank Verbruggen

The research line “Serious and Organised Crime” is intended to study different forms of crime regarded as serious or organised, their patterns, actors, harms and perceived seriousness and to assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of the policies implemented to control these forms of crime. The overall aim of many research line projects is to improve the empirical knowledge base of (serious and organised) crime phenomena and, on that basis, assess impact and effectiveness of control policies.

In addition to several projects on organised crime patterns and illegal markets dynamics, the research line has recently launched studies on several new topics, such as the harms, perceived seriousness and media representation of crime, gangs and the supply of doping products.

Research Topics

Serious and organised crime, illegal and semi-illegal markets with specific focus on illegal drug markets, mafia, doping, gangs and related control and prevention policies, harms, perceived seriousness and media representation of crime.

Ongoing Research Projects

Serious and Organised Crime Patterns and Harms and Related Control Policies

• Black African Gangs in Brussels: Understanding the Seductiveness of Youth Gangs in a Late Modern Metropolis
• Assessing the Harms of Criminal Activities: Providing Evidence for Crime Control Priority Setting

Illegal Drugs, Doping Products and Related Control Policies

• Cannabis Production in Belgium: Assessment of the Nature and Harms, Implications for Priority Setting
• New Methodological Tools for Policy and Programme Evaluation
• The Trade of Doping Products and the Challenges of Supply Reduction: An Examination of Italy’s Experience
• Doping and its Supply: Exploring the Market and Assessing the Impact of Antidoping Policies in Belgian and French Cycling

Perceived Seriousness and Media Representation of Crime

• Public Perceptions of Crime Seriousness: To What Extent Are They Driven by Media Consumption?

Closed Research Projects

• Understanding the World Heroin Market: Dynamics and Policy Options
• Organized Crime Patterns and Control Policies in Europe
• Drug Trafficking and Related Organized Crime in Russia
• Drug Consumption and Prosecutorial Practice: A Study of the Actual Usage of §31(a) BtMG and Other Provisions for Drug Consumption Offences
• Cannabis Non-Prosecution Policies in Germany
• Developing Standards for Assistance to Victims of Terrorism
• Understanding a 'Culture of Violence and Crime': The Role of Cultural Codes in the Evolution of Ethnic Albanian Organised Crime Groups. PhD thesis of Jana Arsovska, defended in 2009
• Mafia and Antimafia in Italy