On September 8 2008, the National Crime Prevention Commission held a public meeting entitled "The Dynamics of Conventional Crime in Bulgaria 2006-2007".

In his opening address, Mr. Mihail Mikov, Minister of the Interior, stressed the importance of the annual National Crime Surveys and the public presentation of their results, and praised the contribution of the Center for the Study of Democracy as an organization actively involved in crime prevention research.

Mr. Tihomir Bezlov, Senior Analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy, made a presentation on the dynamics of conventional crime in Bulgaria in the years 2006-2007. He analyzed the results of the National Crime Surveys for 2006 and 2007 and compared them to official police statistics for the same period. Mr. Bezlov outlined the reasons for the discrepancies between official statistics and the results of victimization surveys and elucidated various factors influencing the dynamics of conventional crime.

The Chief Commissioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr. Pavlin Dimitrov, presented the standpoint of the Ministry of the Interior and outlined the practical measures that the latter has been implementing in fighting conventional crime as well as the results achieved.

In the discussion that followed, Mr. Bozhidar Bozhinov – President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mladen Chervenyakov – Chairman of the European Affairs Committee at the National Assembly, and Georgi Georgiev – member of the Committee on Internal Security and Public Order at the National Assembly, supported the CSD’s broader socio-economic approach to exploring the crime dynamics in the country.