1. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 1 PROOFING LEGISLATION AGAINST CRIME: THE RESULTS OF PROJECT MARC under the 6 th EU research framework Ernesto.U. Savona Università Cattolica-Transcrime (Milan, Italy) Paper prepared for the international conference on corruption and organised crime: June 23-24 2006 Boyan Conference Centre Sofia (Bulgaria)

2. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 2 Crime proofing of legislation is a particular form of crime risk assessment and management that measures existing (crime proofing ex post) or future (crime proofing ex ante) opportunities for crime due to legislation and highlights related interventions aimed at proofing it against crime. The process has three aims: a) to identify, if present, the unintended criminal implications/consequences of existing or forthcoming legislation; b) to determine whether there is crime risk, and if so, of what crime and of what magnitude; c) to suggest those textual changes to the legislation likely to reduce the risk (either by reducing opportunities for crime or by introducing security measures that may mitigate the risk). PRELIMINARY CONCEPTS (1)

3. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 3 - The MARC methodology can be applied when a legislative text is available, even if it is in draft form. A different crime risk assessment process has been developed by Transcrime for where a text is not yet available. This process is conceived as part of the general Impact Assessment carried out by the EU Commission on its proposals; - The crime-proofing process focuses on the indirect effects of legislation, these being the unwanted consequences inadvertently produced by it. The exercise does not concern criminal legislation or any other legislation dealing with crime, or its direct effects. -The crime-proofing process is not prescriptive. Its aim is to make decision-makers aware that future regulation, besides having the potential to produce negative social, economic and environmental consequences, may also produce opportunities for crime. - The crime proofing process should be seen as dynamic. It is refined over time and becomes more systematic as new vulnerability studies are undertaken and further data on a range of sectors become available. PRELIMINARY CONCEPTS (2)

4. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 4 Despite the high demand from European Union institutions for crime proofing mechanisms that can be applied to the legislative process, there has been little implementation and almost no research in the field. Project MARC was designed to address this gap through the development of a crime proofing methodology, to be used for assessing the unintended criminal implications of existing and forthcoming legislation. The aim of the project was to build a crime risk assessment mechanism to proof EU legislation against (economic and organized) crime. WHY PROOFING LEGISLATION AGAINST CRIME?

5. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 5 THE CRIME RISK ASSESSMENT MECHANISM (CRAM) Step 1 Initial Screening This activity scans the piece of regulation/legislation according to established criteria. When the act matches one of these criteria the activity goes to the second step. If it does not, the exercise stops here. Step 2 Preliminary Crime Risk Assessment This is a descriptive/qualitative activity, which aims at identifying and describing which crime risks can be envisaged (if any) and for which types of crime. If the act is determined as a medium/high crime risk, it will go to the next phase. If it does not, the exercise stops here. Step 3 Extended Crime Risk Assessment This is an analytical/quantitative activity, which aims at quantifying the risk envisaged in step 2, by calculating a Legislative Crime Risk index. This is conceived as a function of two elements: the threat, i.e. the likelihood that a crime occurs because of legislation and its seriousness, i.e. the harm caused by a given crime on the society. Step 4 Conclusions and Recommendations Here the conclusions from Steps 2 and 3 are evaluated, resulting in recommendations on how the crime risk could be addressed and legislation proofed.

6. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 6 STEP 1. INITIAL SCREENING

7. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 7 STEP 2. PRELIMINARY CRIME RISK ASSESSMENT (PCRA)

8. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 8 STEP 3. EXTENDED CRIME RISK ASSESSMENT TD indicators: a. External consistency b. Internal consistency c. Clarity of content c. Enforceability MV indicators: a. Attractiveness a.1 Profitability a.2 Risk of detection b. Accessibility S indicators: Penalties and sanctions provided by Member States for each crime type

9. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 9 STEP 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Here the process of legislative crime proofing stops and its results are given to policymakers/regulators. Relevant decisions on if and how legislation should be changed will be then made by policymakers/regulators, taking into account possible trade-offs among crime risk and other positive and negative impacts.

10. Table of contents: Preliminary concepts Why proofing legislation against crime? The CRAM Final remarks 10 - The crime risk assessment mechanism, built to proof legislation against crime, could now be implemented at different levels. - Even if tuned to European legislation, the mechanism could be easily applied to different types of legislation: it could take into account either soft or hard law at international, national, and local levels. It could also be extended to larger typologies of crime than those considered in this paper. - Some parts of the mechanism deserve further research. Indicators should be tuned and extended. The Seriousness index, built in this paper on a simplified indicator (the criminal sanctions provided for the related crimes), could be developed through harm indexes. - As regards the implementation, it is necessary that regulators further develop the impact assessment procedures paying more attention to the implications on crime. Their experience in combination with further research could improve the quality of the mechanism and the information provided. FINAL REMARKS