By combatting petty crime more intensely, Europe would give itself the means to fight more effectively against terrorism, like reported by neweurope.eu . This is what emerges from a report by the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), the agency that helps devise EU’s foreign policy, as well as the security matters. The study “The crime-terrorism nexus” focuses on the connections between terrorism and criminality. Organised crime, of course, but also petty delinquency help fill the coffers of Daesh and finance global jihad.
“Terrorism itself is a crime often financed by organized criminal activity. But in the case of Daesh, the link goes much further,“ the authors write. The Islamic State group has among its European jihadists a particularly high number of criminals.European criminals are one of Daesh’s main targets for recruitment. It is estimated that between 50- 80% of Europeans in Daesh have a criminal record – substantially higher than al-Qaeda, where the same statistic stands at around 25%. The German federal police, for instance, found that two-thirds of German Daesh fighters had criminal backgrounds, one-third of whom had previously been convicted (other estimates put the number of convicted at nearly 60%).
The vast majority of these were repeat offenders: 98% had committed more than one crime, and more than half had committed three or more offenses (mostly acts of violence, as well as property crimes and drug-related felonies). In fact, on average, 7.6 crimes had been committed per person. According to Belgian sources, the criminal records of jihadists mostly consist of theft and as- sault, and usually begin with small-scale shoplifting.Although most people are recruited outside of prison, incarceration can play an important role in the transformation from petty criminal to jihadist. But while around two-thirds of Daesh supporters with a criminal past have served some form of sentence, only 27% said that they were radicalised while incarcerated, according to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR).
