Countering crime has been one of the priorities of the Bulgarian government in a time of transition and was a prerequisite for a successful accession to the European Union. The efforts to guarantee the security and protection of the country and its citizens were paralleled by a set of reforms and policies targeted at the observance of human rights and equal footing of ethno-religious communities in Bulgaria. These two directions in the European development of the country were specifically addressed when the functions of law enforcement bodies were defined, especially with regard to the police. In this context the Center for the Study of Democracy in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and the Open Society Institute carried out a study entitled Ethnic Profiling in Conducting Police Stops, which covered Bulgaria, Hungary and Spain. The comparative analysis of sociological data allowed the comparison of activities performed by police forces in the abovementioned countries with regard to dentifying good practices in the politically sensitive area of law enforcement.

The Roma in Bulgaria’s Criminal Justice System: From Ethnic Profiling to Imprisonment