It is argued that the Europe of the last quarter of the 20th century saw a shift in social control of violence due to the rise of the European Union and the expansion of the crime-winning crime. European states are overwhelmed by the growth in violence that makes use of new technologies and is entrenched by the strength of global capitalist expansion. The EU faces the challenge of fighting organised crime and terrorism, while local governments must do so for crime and security. The situation is illustrated by the Barcelona case, where tensions between global and local processes materialise in the so-called glocalisation, where state competences of justice and security are transferred to the EU while citizen security policies are localised. Finally, he said that the current debate ranged from a ‘punitive populism’ calling for intensified criminal repression and a buffer left for new forms of ‘security governance’ based on social justice.