European Crime Prevention Network
The European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN) is a centre of expertise. The Network aims to connect local, national and European level and to promote crime prevention knowledge and practices among the EU Member States.
The Council of the European Union founded the European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN) in May 2001. The activities of the Network began in the autumn of the same year. The activities and tasks of the crime prevention network are specified in the decision of the Council of Europe of 2009. The tasks of the Network include:
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Identifying good practices in crime prevention and assessing and conveying the information gathered to member countries.
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Facilitating cooperation and helping to create new contacts between the countries in the Network.
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Participating in the development of local and international crime prevention strategies. The Network offers crime prevention tools and supports the work of professionals and decision-makers.
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Promoting crime prevention work by organising meetings, seminars and conferences. One of the main tasks is to organise an annual conference on good practices in crime prevention.
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Organising the annual European Crime Prevention Award (ECPA) competition designed to reward the best European crime prevention project.
The European Crime Prevention Network develops and promotes multidisciplinary work in Europe for preventing crime and the fear of crime. The Network supports decision-makers and other professionals at European and national level, as well as at the level of local organisations.
The activities of the European Crime Prevention Network can focus on changing, topical themes or crime trends.
Organisation
The European Crime Prevention Network consists of National Representatives and a Secretariat. The country holding the presidency of the Council of Europe acts as president of the Network, and the presidency changes every half year. The Hungarian Presidency in the second half of 2024 will focus on the prevention of recidivism.
The Meeting of National Representatives, that is, the Board Meeting, exercises decision-making power within the Network. A Board Meeting is held at least twice every year. The National Representative of a country is a person with crime prevention expertise. The National Representative of the presiding country acts as the president of the Board Meeting. National contact points are responsible for exchanging information on crime prevention between research institutes, National Representatives and the Secretariat of the Network. The task of the Secretariat is to provide administrative assistance and scientific data to the Network. Based in Belgium, the Secretariat produces its own publications at regular intervals on issues such as good practices in crime prevention.
The national representation in Finland is the Ministry of Justice and the National Council for Crime Prevention. The representative of the Network in Finland is presently Aarne Kinnunen, Executive Secretary, and the substitute representative is Saija Järvinen, Ministerial Adviser. The Police University College acts as the contact point in Finland with Vesa Muttilainen, Senior Researcher, as the contact person.
Further information
The website of the network eucpn.org contains information on issues such as good practices and projects in crime prevention in Europe, research within the field and current events.
The following documents contain more detailed information on the operational principles of the Network and current focus areas of its activities:
Multiannual Strategy for the Network 2021−2025