The project aims at producing comparative, European added value based on knowledge accrued within national frameworks about
social, political, economic, legal and cultural factors conducive to socially deviant behaviour and crime, their perception among the
public and the public policies pertaining to these phenomena.  The project defines four objectives: - The production of scholarly
added value by the systematic use of comparisons within the European Union, thanks to the great variety of situations in the
different member countries, which represents a sort of natural laboratory. - The dissemination of the scholarly added value produced, (a)
within the Consortium; (b) more widely, within the scientific community; (c) among officials at different governmental levels
throughout Europe; and (d) to the various stakeholders in these subjects (media actors, NGOs, the private security sector or others).
- The development of an interdisciplinary scientific network susceptible of (a) gradually integrating competent centres in
different countries, starting from a solid core group . A specific emphasis will be put on integrating  recent EU member and candidate
countries, whith the aim of fostering partnerships and helping consolidate research on socially deviant behaviours and prevention ;
 (b) establishing relevant scholarly cooperation with centres located outside the European Union.- The provision, for officials
at various governmental levels, of methodological skills bearing on assistance in decision-making, measurement of facts and
evaluation of public policies, in order to contribute to the work of monitoring centres at supra-national, national or infra-national
levels.