This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met.(June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Crime in Kosovo" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)
Police vehicle in the streets of Pristina
Kosovo within communist Yugoslavia had the lowest rate of crime in the whole country.[1] Following the Kosovo War (1999), the region had become a significant center of organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and organ theft. There is also an ongoing ethnic conflict between Kosovar Albanians and Kosovan Serbs. The large Kosovar diaspora which had built up in Western Europe during the 1990s, combined with the political instability, created ideal conditions for Kosovo to become "Europe's crime hub"; well into the 2000s, Kosovo remained associated with both ethnic conflict and organized crime.[2]
A Kosovo Police service has been built up under UN administration, beginning in 1999. It had an operational force of 7,000 officers in 2004, and further expanded to 9,000 by 2010.
The deplorable crime rate led to an additional deployment of civilian law enforcement resources of the European Union to Kosovo, under the name of European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo in 2008.
Originally scheduled for two years, the duration of the deployment was extended twice, as of September 2012 scheduled to last until 2014.
According to the "Kosovo 2012 Crime and Safety Report" by the US Department of State (intended as an advisory to US nationals travelling abroad),
"High unemployment and other economic factors encourage criminal activity in Kosovo. Kosovo is rated as HIGH for residential and non-residential crime. Street crimes consisting of theft and purse snatchings are serious problems in Kosovo, especially in Pristina. Criminals often commit crimes while armed with handguns, as weapons are fairly easy to obtain."[3]
^Cite error: The named reference Macdonald78 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"IMAGE MATTERS! Deconstructing Kosovo's Image Problem" (PDF). Forum 2015 by IKS – Kosovar Stability Initiative p.19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013. Financed by: Kosova Foundation for Open Society.
"Kosovo has a serious image problem. In many European countries, the name ‘Kosovo’ still conjures up images of ethnic conflict and organized crime."
citing:
David Binder, Kosovo - a Mafia society, Balkananalysis, 23 February 2008.
Mathias Joop & Sammi Sandawi Operationalizing of the Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans, Institute for European Policy ()
"Kosovo drug mafia supply heroin to Europe", The Guardian, World News, 13 March 2000
"Report on the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2007" Released by Transparency International – December 06, 2007
"Trafficking in Persons Report", US State Department, June 2007, p.180
^"Kosovo 2012 Crime and Safety Report". United States Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
Kosovo within communist Yugoslavia had the lowest rate of crimein the whole country. Following the Kosovo War (1999), the region had become a significant...
Numerous war crimes were committed by all sides during the Kosovo War, which lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. According to Human Rights...
The Kosovo War (Albanian: Lufta e Kosovës, Serbian: Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict inKosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until...
committed in 1999–2000 by members of the KLA. In June 2020 the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office filed indictments for crimes against...
The Kosovo Police is the national policing law enforcement agency of Kosovo. It was established in 1999 and took its current form with the 2008 police...
that prostitution has become a new organised crimeinKosovo. Prior to the Kosovo War following the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, prostitution...
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition. Kosovo lies landlocked in the centre of...
Islam inKosovo has a long-standing tradition dating back to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Before the Battle of Kosovoin 1389, the entire Balkan...
involved in the Yugoslav Wars, which took place between 1991 and 1999—the war in Slovenia, the war in Croatia, the war in Bosnia, and Kosovo. From 1991...
This is a list of massacres that happened inKosovo throughout history. Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878) Balkan Wars (First Balkan War • Second Balkan...
According to several public surveys inKosovo and reports from institutions such as the European Commission, levels of corruption and impunity among politicians...
The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international peacekeeping force inKosovo. Its operations are gradually reducing until Kosovo's Security Force,...
War crimes witnesses to the Kosovo War (1998–99) have been victims to threats, violence, and murder. Those who spoke out about the abuses of their side...
the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, which was declared in 2008. The Government of Serbia does not diplomatically recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state...
exploitation. According to the U.S. State Department's 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, Kosovo is a Tier 2 country, which is reserved for "Countries whose governments...
history of Kosovo dates back to pre-historic times when the Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, and Baden culture were active in the region...
either in the Netherlands or inKosovo. The court is currently set up for delegating the trials of the crimes committed by members of the Kosovo Liberation...
American-Kosovo Albanian members of the Kosovo Liberation Army who were killed by Serbian Police shortly after the end of the Kosovo War, while they were in custody...
by Belgrade's War Crimes Court. Serbia portal List of massacres in Yugoslavia List of massacres in the Kosovo War War crimesinKosovo Battle of Podujevo...
the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a Kosovo Albanian separatist militia which fought for the secession of Kosovo from the Federal Republic...
Masakra e Mejës) was the mass execution of at least 377 Kosovo Albanian civilians during the Kosovo War, which took place on 27 April 1999. Of the victims...
sites inKosovo were destroyed during the period of Yugoslav rule and especially the Kosovo conflict (1998-1999) which constituted a war crime violating...
Kosovo Serbs are one of the ethnic groups of Kosovo and they form the largest ethnic minority community inKosovo (5–6%). The precise number of Kosovo...
Global Information
