National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

In addition, a number of factors stated above in section 4.1 also have an effect.
Due to the existence of a prosperity gap between Western Europe and the new
EU Member States, combined with possible political instability in the Balkans and
conflicts in those countries, there is a risk of an increased influx of criminals and,
as a result, an increase in crime in the Netherlands. The use of high-tech security
measures – such as nanotechnology – will in the future provide opportunities
to secure products in the retail trade. It should be noted, however, that this will
probably affect mainly the possibility of recovering articles once they have been
stolen. What this means for the future scale of burglary remains to be seen.
Besides this, the focus of the police and the judicial authorities is a relevant
factor. In this context, it is worth noting that investments are currently being
made to expand forensic investigations as part of the programme to improve
criminal investigations and prosecutions. Several hundred extra people will be
trained as forensic assistants. However, it is once again not clear at the moment
what effect these investments will have on the future scale of domestic and
industrial burglaries.
4.2.7 Conclusion
The total number of recorded domestic and industrial burglaries has been
dropping steadily for several years. The lower limit of the total annual damage
caused by domestic and industrial burglaries by supraregional criminal
organisations is between 40 and 50 million euros (around 25 million euros
for domestic burglaries and around 15 million euros for industrial burglaries).
Psychological and sometimes physical harm is usually involved as well in the
case of domestic burglaries.
In the future the downward trend of domestic burglaries of recent years may
level off. The main reasons are: the improvements brought about by new
security measures may even out and criminal organisations from Eastern Europe
may become more mobile. Domestic burglary as an organised offence at the
supraregional level has therefore been qualified as a conditional threat.
The scale of industrial burglaries is smaller than that of domestic burglaries,
even though the actual damage is probably greater than reported here because
the victims are less willing to report industrial burglaries to the police than is
the case for domestic burglaries. Nevertheless, the amount of financial loss
involved seems to be relatively limited. Industrial burglaries hardly ever involve
a confrontation with the victims. As a result, industrial burglaries have been
qualified as no specific threat.
chapter 4 – Supraregional property crime
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