Financial crimes - a criminological research perspective

Abstract

'Financial crimes' is a heterogeneous catch-all category that applies to all except traditional crimes for gain. Its principal components – frauds (plural is intentional), money laundering and corruption – can be committed by people from the most elite status to blue collar and professional criminals. The chapter discusses the components of the legitimacy of law, why people comply or not to varying extents, and some of the research questions according to which we might judge effectiveness of controls. It concludes that research and action needs to focus not just on criminal justice but on the range of harm reduction measures on economic crimes of various kinds, operating on offenders, victims and third parties who might serve as better 'capable guardians'. If we seriously want to test effectiveness, we need to engage more in mystery shopping exercises to see how real people react to offers of business that may come from corrupt public servants, drug or people traffickers, tax evaders, and terrorism financiers, operating either as individuals or using corporations whose ownership may be opaque. This needs to be looked at in the context of how different sorts of financial crimes are organised, and how different measures of control impact upon that. And we need to focus on a broad range of financial crimes, not just either 'crimes of the powerful' or the largely blue-collar perpetrators of volume frauds.