Eastern Europe Safer Than Western Europe
According to a new UN report, the notoriously violent Balkans are now safer than Western Europe. Crimes such as rape and burglary have dropped dramatically amid stabilizing economies and political systems. Two Balkan countries joined the European Union in 2007, Romania and Bulgaria. The report states that crime against citizens and their property is now lower in the Balkans than in Western Europe. Drug trafficking and wide-spread corruption are still major problems, however. Experts believe improving economic conditions will result in less organized crime, an important condition for EU membership.
A new United Nations report says the Balkans, once known as a hotbed for crime and violence amid Yugoslav wars and the collapse of Communism, have become safer than western Europe.
The Balkans have made huge strides in cutting conventional crimes such as homicide, robbery, rape, burglary and assault but challenges still remain in the form of organized crime and its links to politicians and business, a new UN report concludes.
“Some of you will be surprised,” said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which compiled the report, at a news conference in Brussels. “In general, if you look at conventional crime, the levels of these crimes across the region are by far lower than they used to be, particularly at the beginning of the 1990s.”
Administrator @ May 31, 2008
Hmm, im skeptical about this report. corruption is like 10 times worse in the Balkans than in western Europe. and they still have violent organized crime at a much larger scale.