Private Enforcement Services - a Preventive or a Criminogenic Factor for Economic Crimes (a Socio-Economic and Legal Analysis)

Abstract

Private enforcement as a mechanism of protecting property rights and contract obligations consists in the use of coercion and is a paid service. Private enforcement is provided by security services entrepreneurs, who use and adapt different practices. These services should be studied from different perspectives, including legal, economic and sociological ones. The authors explain why it is necessary to examine enforcement as a mechanism of forcing to fulfill obligations while taking into account its institutional essence. In this respect, enforcement is a mechanism that ensures that institutions fulfill their roles. Within institutional framework, sustainable relationships between subjects are only possible if the rules of the game are clearly defined or if the limitations have been set. Enforcement through coercion makes the subjects fulfill their obligations determined by formal or informal rules of the game. At the same time, in a developed society the services of enforcement have institutional characteristics because they are themselves based on both formal rules of interaction (for example, an agreement) and informal ones arising from traditional culture and practices. The authors single out and describe four types of enforcement. The first one is self-enforcement; it is present between the contractors who are interested in observing the conditions of the contract. The second one is group enforcement; it is used by entrepreneurs associations or self-regulating organizations when a party fails to observe its obligations, in which case the violator is subject to various sanctions (expulsion from an organization, reputational los-ses, etc.). The third type is state enforcement; it is implemented through the state legal system. The fourth type is private enforcement; such services are carried out by special structures or private persons. The authors also identify the specific features of the development of private enforcement in Russia. These services could be effective or fictitious; they could contain the elements of overt or covert coercion. The coercion measures used to force the violator to fulfill the obligations could be different - legal, economic, non-economic, etc. Under certain circumstances private enforcement could be an instrument of criminal groups. When researching the problems of private enforcement from criminological standpoint, it is important to determine the causes and conditions that contribute to unlawful actions.