‘Marketing hype’ hampers efforts on financial crime

The Government and police efforts to tackle financial crime – from business fraud to tax evasion – are hampered by a lack of accurate data about the nature and extent of offending, according to research.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) report, The Patterns, Organisation and Governance of Economic Crimes: Enhancing the Evidence Base, published today (December 13) describes the information available on offending or threat as “marketing hype”.

Michael Levi, professor of criminology at Cardiff University, who compiled the research, said:
“It comes from business consultants who want to scare companies and government into buying services aimed at dealing with problems that may be a lot smaller than claimed.

“Even when public agencies do make a serious effort to produce data that they believe is carefully researched, it often lacks professional or public credibility.”

Professor Levi, who has spent years researching the extent of financial crime and the ways in which police, regulators and private companies understand and respond to the various forms of threat, said a lack of clear thinking about how offenders and victims can and should be dealt with also makes it more difficult to tackle financial crimes in a coherent way, adding that a better informed, evidence-based debate is needed about what kind of policing should be used to tackle financial crime.

The research into tax fraud suggests there is a set of persistent offenders who are unlikely to be discouraged if their only punishment when caught is to pay a financial settlement anonymously. Professor Levi called for offenders to be prosecuted so they are “taken out of circulation”.

The research has been shared with UK and global organisations with a crime-fighting remit, including the Financial Services Authority, the National Fraud Authority, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the European Commission.