Journal of Economic Criminology最新文献

{"title":"Legally-aware AI moderation in Vietnam: A cybersecurity law-compliant framework for platform governance","authors":"Luong Vu Bui","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100193","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100193","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital platforms increasingly mediate fraud, illicit trade, misinformation, and incitement, often under stringent statutory timelines that demand rapid and auditable responses. Conventional moderation pipelines remain tuned to classifier accuracy, leaving them misaligned with legal categories, due-process safeguards, and deterrence goals. This produces costly false positives that chill lawful expression, false negatives that enable social harm, and thin audit trails that weaken accountability. We address this gap by introducing a legally-aware AI moderation framework that integrates law → policy → model label → evidence minima → action tier → appeal path into a single, auditable pipeline with human-in-the-loop review and mandatory rationales. The framework embeds economic criminology by modeling the expected utility of offending and demonstrating how risk thresholds, graduated sanctions, and appeal quality shift incentives while internalizing enforcement externalities. We develop a decision-analytic simulation of 50,000 multi-signal items that calibrates governance choices on a harm–cost frontier. Results show that at matched thresholds, a graduated action menu achieves 2.51 × greater harm reduction per unit enforcement cost compared to binary removal, while sustaining deterrence and lowering appeal overturn rates. This evidence demonstrates that moderation choices function as price signals in a crime market: raising certainty and proportional severity reduces offenders’ expected payoffs while protecting legitimacy through reversibility and transparency. By quantifying deterrence, externality reduction, and enforcement-cost efficiency, the framework reframes moderation as a problem of governance economics, not just technical accuracy. Situated within economic criminology, it operationalizes deterrence (certainty × severity), rational-choice incentives, and capable guardianship via a cost-adjusted harm-reduction frontier. Through open research objects and a jurisdictional portability protocol, it offers a replicable and auditable blueprint for platform governance that is compliant, economically rational, and transferable across sectors and jurisdictions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hawala in the UK-Nigeria remittance corridor: Institutional dynamics and illicit value flows","authors":"Jonathan G. Ercanbrack","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100192","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100192","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Based on a transnational case study of an informal value transfer system that UK law enforcement authorities were able to detect, this doctrinal and qualitative study explores the regulation, supervision and enforcement of unlicensed/unregistered hawala operators and similar service providers (HOSSPs) in the Nigeria-United Kingdom value transfer corridor. The study indicates that Bureaux de Change (BDCs) are perceived as low-risk entities in the socio-economic context of Nigeria, which strengthens the capacity of HOSSP operators to arbitrage regulatory controls. Although subject to a robust legal framework designed to deal with its large, cash based, informal economy, without effective supervision, it is nearly impossible to uncover, let alone, prosecute unlicensed money transmission services such as HOSSPs. Nigeria’s weak supervision of BDCs together with indications that unlicensed operators are seldom prosecuted creates a serious vulnerability that opens the floodgates to illicit value transfers in the UK-Nigeria corridor. Even states regarded as having well-developed regulatory frameworks and relatively effective supervisory and enforcement systems such as the UK are vulnerable to those wishing to use HOSSPs for criminal purposes. The UK’s approach to unregulated HOSSPs is to stringently apply the law without distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate value. These types of transactions are considered abnormal and not in keeping with the legal or socioeconomic context, nor are they compatible with financial law. Despite this approach, the case study underscores that supervisory vulnerabilities to illicit flows in major remittance corridors such as the UK-Nigeria corridor likely play a significant role in money laundering in the UK.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100192"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145158608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reasons for commiting economic crimes: A South African study","authors":"Andries Petrus Swanepoel","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100190","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100190","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>The occurrence of economic crimes is a serious challenge to business leaders, government officials and private individuals in South Africa. The objective of this research was to determine the main reasons for committing economic crimes in South Africa.</div></div><div><h3>Design/Methodology/Approach</h3><div>Primary data from web-based and manual questionnaires were used to empirically analyse the perceptions of sentenced economic crime offenders and role-players in the prevention, detection, and prosecution of economic crime offences regarding the reasons for committing economic crimes in South Africa. The final realised sample included 345 respondents from the various populations of key role-players and 82 economic crime offenders from Gauteng-based correctional institutions. Mann-Whitney U tests were employed to test for significant differences between the views of roleplayers and economic crime offenders.</div></div><div><h3>Findings</h3><div>Most of both groups of respondents cited definite reasons for the commission of economic crimes in South Africa, although statistically significant differences existed in the degree of agreement. The challenge is therefore to address the occurrence of economic crimes.</div></div><div><h3>Originality</h3><div>This research paper is the original work of the author conducted as part of extended research related to an extended study on a financial and moral perspective of the impact of economic crime on taxation in South Africa.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100190"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145109616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combating illegal oil refining and enhancing security in Bayelsa State, Nigeria","authors":"Bitrus Eniyekenimi Daukere","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100191","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100191","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bayelsa State, Nigeria, faces a complex battle against illegal oil refining, locally known as Kpo-fire, which threatens the state’s security, environment, and socio-economic stability despite ongoing Nigerian Navy interventions. This study investigates the challenges of illegal oil refining and security enhancement in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, using both primary and secondary data sources. The research questions guiding this study include: How effective are the Nigerian Navy’s enforcement strategies in curbing illegal oil refining? What are the socio-economic drivers behind the persistence of illegal oil refining? And how do community perceptions influence security dynamics in Bayelsa State? Specifically, data on kinetic operations against illegal refining sites (IRS) from January 2024 to January 2025 were obtained from the Nigerian Navy’s Central Naval Command in Yenagoa. Additionally, focus group discussions were conducted in Oporoma and Ekeremor to capture community perceptions on the prevalence, drivers, and impacts of illegal oil refining activities in the study area. Findings reveal that while the Nigerian Navy’s kinetic operations, including the deactivation of 117 IRS and seizure of over ₦2 billion worth of petroleum products, significantly disrupted illicit networks and enhanced regional security, illegal oil refining persists due to socio-economic factors and collective community tolerance. Findings also reveal that environmental degradation and health risks remain prominent concerns. The Nigerian Navy’s combined approach of enforcement and community outreach fostered cooperation but highlighted the necessity of addressing root causes. The study concludes that sustainable solutions require holistic strategies integrating law enforcement, community engagement, and economic development to effectively combat illegal oil refining and improve security in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145097046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Raising the deterrent effect of the U.S. deferred prosecution agreement: New perspectives on the U.S. from the U.K. and Jersey","authors":"Yuan Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100189","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100189","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) were introduced to enhance corporate accountability while mitigating the collateral consequences of full criminal prosecution. Yet, the U.S. practice has increasingly drawn criticism for reducing DPAs to convenient settlement devices, insufficiently aligned with their deterrent purpose. Monetary sanctions have proven inadequate in preventing recidivism, corporate self-monitoring remains unreliable, and the prosecution of culpable individuals is exceptionally rare. At the core of these deficiencies lies the limited scope of judicial oversight in the U.S. regime. This study situates its analysis within statutory, administrative, and emerging case law in the U.S., and draws comparative lessons from the more refined frameworks of the U.K. and Jersey— especially on substantive judicial scrutiny and mandatory self-reporting aspect. This study proposes to raise the standards and application of the U.S. DPA system by strengthening substantive judicial oversight, better incentivizing corporate self-reporting, and prosecuting corporate employees responsible for corporate crime.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145097045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Criminological and socioeconomic aspects of corporate delinquency: A 21st century perspective","authors":"Partheeswaran Parameswaran ,&nbsp;Mohammed Shahzad Shafi","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the growing concern of corporate delinquency in securities markets through an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating insights from sociological jurisprudence, criminology, and economic principles. Deploying a qualitative methodology, the research involves a comparative analysis of landmark case studies such as Enron, Wirecard, and Yes Bank, along with existing legal frameworks to identify systemic weaknesses in corporate governance and regulatory enforcement. The authors discuss theories like the Fraud Triangle, General Strain Theory, and Locke’s social contract theory <em>inter alia</em>, delving into the psychological and sociological factors driving white-collar crimes. The findings reveal significant gaps in accountability mechanisms, which facilitate corporate delinquency that erode societal trust in capitalism and economic stability. The authors advocate for the integration of stronger regulatory mechanisms and incorporation of technology such as blockchain, to bolster investor confidence and mitigate the socio-economic impact of corporate crimes. By following a multidisciplinary framework, the research contributes to the evolving discourse on economic criminology and corporate governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"9 ","pages":"Article 100185"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144931757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An assessment of the factors of economic and financial corruption by public officials in Nigeria","authors":"Oluwafemi Adesina Oyebanji ,&nbsp;Don John O. Omale","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100188","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100188","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The endemic nature and global acknowledgment of economic and financial crimes in Nigeria perpetrated by corrupt political and public officials cannot be overemphasised. The effects of this on the socio-economic and sustainable development of Nigeria cannot equally be ignored. This study, therefore, focused on economic and financial corruption by public officials in Nigeria. It investigates the factors that encourage financial corruption among public officials in Nigeria as well as recommends what government should do to tackle the issue. The research question that guided the study is ‘What are the factors accountable for financial corruption in Nigeria’? (<strong>RQ1</strong>)<strong>.</strong> The main instrument utilized in the study for data collection was a Microsoft questionnaire which was administered on 114 respondents. The study found that financial and economic corruption by public officials in Nigeria is an ultra-reality. It also found that the factors that contribute to financial and economic corruption among public officials in Nigeria include greed, lack of accountability, moral decadence, the influence of godfatherism, as well as financial inducements, the influence of external actors and international financial institutions, relative poverty, and societal and familial pressures. The study recommends that the government's efforts to end economic and financial crimes will remain a mirage if the immunity clause that is often abused by political leaders is not amended. It also recommends non-interference in the investigation and prosecution of cases by the anti-corruption agencies, and the judiciary.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145005441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding accredited investors in cryptocurrency markets: A comprehensive analysis","authors":"Lana Stern","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100187","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100187","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accreditation has historically played a central role in securities regulation, seeking to balance investor protection, market access, and capital formation. Traditionally, regulatory frameworks have relied on wealth or income thresholds as proxies for investor sophistication, premised on the assumption that individuals with greater financial resources are better equipped to manage risk and obtain professional advice. However, in rapidly evolving crypto-asset markets, these wealth-based criteria have become increasingly misaligned with market realities. Such thresholds frequently exclude technically proficient but less affluent participants, thereby perpetuating inequality and conflicting with the inclusive ethos of digital finance. Moreover, these criteria have failed to prevent significant losses among wealthy accredited investors, as evidenced by the collapses of Terra-Luna, Three Arrows Capital, and FTX. Competence-based frameworks are still underdeveloped, unevenly applied, and can become overly formal, while traditional disclosure rules do not fully address the technical and behavioral challenges of decentralized finance. This article takes a critical look at accreditation in crypto-asset markets, drawing on legal, empirical, and normative analysis. By comparing the United States, European Union, Singapore, and Russia, and examining cases like the ICO boom, Singapore’s regulatory sandboxes, and the Terra-Luna and FTX collapses, the article shows that wealth-based accreditation falls short in fairness and effectiveness. It proposes a hybrid approach that combines competence assessments, crypto-specific disclosure, prudential safeguards, regulatory sandboxes, and international cooperation. This article contends that reforming accreditation constitutes a fundamental transformation in the approach to investor protection, advancing principles of fairness, legitimacy, and systemic robustness. By introducing a hybrid framework grounded in fairness and empirical evidence, the article contributes to policy discourse and informs scholarly understanding of the evolution of financial regulation in the context of digital innovation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"9 ","pages":"Article 100187"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144916841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A data-driven approach to measure money laundering risk and its relationship with corruption","authors":"Michele Riccardi","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100184","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100184","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The issue of how the money laundering (ML) risk of countries is measured is not a merely technical problem. It has a strong impact on countries’ development, in particular of the Global South. First, because official anti-money laundering (AML) blacklists and grey lists, which frequently include developing and small countries, are heavily questioned in terms of their capacity to represent actual ML risk. Second, because a proper measurement of ML risk would allow to better appreciate the relationship between ML and other crimes, in particular corruption, which represent key threats for most of the Global South and the developing world. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a methodology which, based on a data-driven approach, can be employed to assess the actual risk of ML at country level, and to analyse its relationship with transnational corruption. In particular it proposes a composite indicator of ML risk based on the inputs from previous economic, sociological and criminological literature. These refer to key <em>threats</em> and <em>vulnerabilities</em> and are operationalised into one or more measurable proxy variables. The paper then validates the indicator by applying it to selected countries, and by comparing it with (a) observed evidence of ML and (b) measures of corruption and corruption <em>exposure</em>. Results show a strong correlation between the new risk indicator and observed evidence of ML, but no correlation with corruption levels. However, countries at high risk of ML appear to be more exposed to investors and beneficial owners from countries at higher level of corruption, suggesting they can also attract corruption money. Negative correlation with official AML blacklists is observed: surprisingly, listed countries show lower ML risk on average. The work may help to revisit the current AML blacklisting process, and minimise its unintended consequences such as <em>de-risking</em> on smaller countries and Global South as a whole.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100184"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145005440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Patterns and predictors of cyber fraud victimization: Testing routine activity theory and general theory of crime in Japan","authors":"Ai Suzuki ,&nbsp;Ko Shikata ,&nbsp;Takahito Shimada","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100186","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100186","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although previous research on the predictors of cyber fraud victimization has provided evidence of the impact of routine activity and low self-control on the risk of cyber fraud victimization, little knowledge is available in Japan. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, no study has yet explored how victims change their risky online behaviors after victimization. Using data from a nationwide survey of cyber fraud victimization, this study aims to determine whether the characteristics of victims of cyber fraud in other advanced nations are applicable to Japan, with a special focus on those explained by routine activity theory and general theory of crime, and how the subsequent behavior of victims changed after victimization. The results of the ordinary least squares regression analyses demonstrate the applicability of routine activity theory and general theory of crime in explaining the predictors of cyber fraud victimization in Japan. Importantly, this study indicates that only a few victims of cyber fraud changed their behavior after victimization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"9 ","pages":"Article 100186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}