Combating organized crime: guidelines, prevention, comprehensive strategy. Report on action programme, Cardiff 1998

In adopting the report by Mrs Charlotte CEDERSCHIÖLD (EPP, S) on combating organised crime Parliament regretted that the draft Council resolution did not contain sufficiently concrete measures and called on the Council to take steps to remedy that from the list it had put forward and to set deadlines for each action to be implemented. It called firstly for objective and sustained participation by the media in raising awareness of the dangers of organised crime. It also hoped that the applicant countries and (at least) neighbouring third countries would participate in this preventive strategy against organised crime. It also stressed the importance of civil society in preventing crime. The practical measures proposed by Parliament included: - the adoption of specific provisions in the fields of labour, health, education, training and culture; - the development of innovative and people-friendly town planning, which includes the elimination of slums and ghettos, the development of architecture inimical to crime, the replacement of the present concentration of large numbers of refugees in unorganised urban settlements by organised camps with proper sanitary facilities, security and provisions etc; - the strengthening of the social fabric and encouragement for the creation of various support groups; - strengthening a sense of community and self-esteem or social values; - the establishment at local level of crime prevention boards; - the integration of marginalised groups; - encouragement for community policing; - measures to combat factors which lead to the development of begging, particularly by children; - support for measures and projects to educate citizens to be law-abiding; - elimination of networks involved in trafficking in women and illegal prostitution; - encouragement for citizens to make statements to the police and the judicial authorities (protection of witnesses); - care for families at risk from delinquency; - strengthening of efforts to resocialise offenders and repeat offenders; - the establishment of programmes to help and treat victims. Lastly, Parliament called on the Council and the Member States to give priority to crime prevention projects within the context of the reform of the Structural Funds and other regional assistance programmes. �