Crime business and cime money in Europe

While the European Union is groping for political and economic consolidation, one may wonder whether criminal businesses in and between the Member States are not consolidating as well. Are there indications that the crime-markets in Europe are shrinking? Or has the EU become more attractive for certain manifestations of the criminal economy, for example by increasing taxes for coveted commodities like tobacco? This increased potential criminal profit margin is certainly a stimulus for enterprising criminals. However, this attractiveness should be lowered by the `high-density` laws and regulations drafted to prevent the laundering of illegal profits. Who is attracted to crime-for-profit if these profits cannot be spent safely? Given the ongoing crime trade the prospects of making money by engaging in criminal entrepreneurship apparently have not yet waned. In this seventh volume of the Cross-border Crime Colloquium, experts from seven Member States of the European Union present their findings and opin-ions concerning the various manifestations of crime-trades and criminal finances in the EU. They present an analysis of the anti-money laundering regulations, the very modest successes in this field, a selecion of the criminal markets in Europe and the related organised crime imagery. The volume also addresses the question whether the legislative responses are really commensurate to the nature of the threats posed by crime-entrepreneurs.