International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 53

International Journal on Criminology
locaux d’habitations principales rose by almost 2 points and reached almost 16%
in 2009 (Rapport annuel, ONDRP 2010).
The proportion of foreigners among the suspects for cambriolages de locaux
d’habitations principales continued to grow after 2009, as can be seen in the statistics of the
Police Nationale:
The number of foreigners suspected of thefts with forced entry by the Police
Nationale increased by 86.9% between 2008 and 2012. Over four years, the
foreigners suspected of cambriolages de locaux d’habitations principales more than
doubled (+107.7% or +1,321 suspects). . . . Thus, between 2008 and 2010, the
proportion of foreign suspects of thefts with forced entry rose by 4.4 points to
reach 18.5% in 2010. Between 2010 and 2012, this proportion continued to rise
to reach 22.9% in 2012. … Over those two years, the number of foreign suspects
increased (+22.8% or +848 suspects) while it decreased for French citizens (−6.9%
or −1,142 suspects) (Rapport annuel, ONDRP 2013a 6).
By using a database that provides detailed information on the nationalities of
suspects, it can be seen that persons of Romanian nationality and from Balkan Europe
(Albania, Bulgaria, and the countries of ex-Yugoslavia) account for close to 60% of the
increase in foreigners suspected by the police for theft with forced entry between 2008 and
2012.
The Belgian Federal Police described the “internationalization of criminality”
as the result of “the presence of traveling gangs of perpetrators, primarily from Eastern
Europe, which are active in Belgium.”
The ONDRP presents the hypothesis of the role of organized crime coming from
Eastern European countries based on its reasoning and the following example:
We suggest the hypothesis that a very specific change in terms of the profile of
suspects and the type of thefts . . . has very likely as its source activities related to
organized crime. . . . The characteristics of persons of Georgian nationality provide,
according to the ONDRP, another example of a special profile very probably
included in the context of organized criminality. Between 2008 and 2012, the
proportion of Georgians among those suspected of theft by the Police Nationale
passed from 0.3% to 1.3%. In total, 80% of this increase can be explained by adult
males of Georgian nationality suspected of theft with forced entry or shoplifting
(Rizk 2013, 22).
It then goes on to develop what might have been at the origin of the phenomenon:
The idea that the thefts would be perceived by the authorities as local crimes may
have incited organized criminals to become involved using what could be called
a transnational format, either because the objects would have been intended for
resale outside the country where they were stolen, or because the majority of
the proceeds of the thefts would be transferred to the heads of networks located
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