Journal of Economic Criminology最新文献

{"title":"Banditry and modern slavery: (In)security dynamics in Nigeria","authors":"Sallek Yaks Musa","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100194","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100194","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The persistent crises of banditry and modern slavery in northwest and northcentral Nigeria have escalated to critical levels, profoundly affecting both security and socio-economic stability. While existing studies have examined banditry extensively, there remains a significant gap in understanding the complex intersections between banditry and modern slavery. This article addresses this gap by analysing how banditry has evolved into a form of modern slavery, exploiting vulnerable populations through extortion, forced labour, and violence. It highlights the urgent need for a multi-faceted response that includes strengthening security forces, reforming legal frameworks, and enhancing victim support. Key recommendations include bolstering community policing, revising legal frameworks to address banditry-related enslavement explicitly, and investing in rural development to alleviate the socio-economic vulnerabilities that fuel these crises. The article emphasises that effective state control and the reestablishment of security presence in ungoverned areas are crucial for restoring public trust and ensuring long-term stability. This comprehensive approach aims to dismantle the complex nexus of banditry and modern slavery, paving the way for sustainable development and justice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145268043","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":"2025-12-01","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":"Plans without action? Politics and institutional challenges of anti-corruption reforms in the BRICS countries","authors":"Nkosingiphile Mkhize","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100197","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100197","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the implementation challenges of anti-corruption policies in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) countries since 2016. It aims to understand why significant gaps persist between the formal adoption of anti-corruption frameworks and their practical enforcement across these emerging economies. The study employs a comparative case study design grounded in institutional theory and policy implementation frameworks. It uses a qualitative, cross-sectional approach to analyse secondary data drawn from official reports, scholarly literature, and international governance indices. The analysis focuses on three core dimensions of implementation: institutional capacity, political will, and legal enforcement. The findings reveal that although all five countries have enacted substantial anti-corruption legislation, implementation is undermined by weak institutional capacity, inconsistent political commitment, and compromised legal enforcement. Brazil’s Operation Car Wash, once celebrated, was later eroded by political interference. Russia’s enforcement remains selective and elite protective. India’s institutional efforts are weakened by politicised enforcement. China’s high-profile anti-corruption campaign is limited by centralisation and procedural ambiguity. In South Africa, state capture has left a legacy of institutional fragility despite recent reformist efforts. The study relies on secondary data and does not include primary fieldwork or interviews, which may limit context-specific insights. However, the comparative design offers valuable lessons for institutional reform and policy alignment in other transitional governance contexts. By focusing on the interplay between capacity, will, and enforcement in five major global South powers, this study provides a nuanced understanding of anti-corruption implementation. It highlights the importance of aligning political incentives with institutional reforms to bridge the gap between policy and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100197"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145466586","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":"2025-12-01","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":"Progress or stagnation? The evolution and reform of corporate criminal liability in the UK","authors":"Yuyun Ma,&nbsp;Nicholas Ryder","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100172","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100172","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article analysis of the progression of corporate criminal liability from its historical foundations to contemporary reforms. It seeks to examine how case law and legislative developments have responded to the challenges posed by the identification doctrine and assess the effectiveness of these reforms in addressing gaps in corporate accountability. The first section of the paper provides a background on the development of corporate criminal liability, starting with the identification doctrine and its evolution through landmark cases. The second part delves into relevant legislative reforms, analysing their effectiveness. The article offers insights into how the legal framework for corporate criminal liability can continue to evolve to ensure accountability and deter corporate misconduct effectively</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100172"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145268041","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":"2025-12-01","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":"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":"2025-12-01","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":"Disentangling and demystifying converging crimes and illegal wildlife trade in South Africa, Hong Kong, and Canada","authors":"Michelle Anagnostou ,&nbsp;Brent Doberstein ,&nbsp;Derek Armitage ,&nbsp;Peter Stoett ,&nbsp;Ashwell Glasson","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100196","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100196","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Illegal wildlife trade is increasingly reported as intersecting with other serious crimes, a phenomenon labelled “crime convergence”. However, there is limited empirical research on the extent and nature of these linkages. The present study seeks to understand what criminal activities converge with illegal wildlife trade, how they converge, and what factors shape crime convergence. One hundred and twelve law enforcement personnel and other experts were interviewed, predominantly in three focus jurisdictions: South Africa, Hong Kong, and Canada. Our results showed that there is evidence of illegal wildlife trade converging with a multitude of illegal activities, including drug trafficking; sex trafficking; child abuse; trafficking in human body parts; migrant smuggling; forced and bonded labour; illegal alcohol trade; arms trafficking; vehicle theft and trafficking; illegal trade in counterfeit and pirated goods; and illegal trade in mined resources, among others. Interviewees who have led large investigations confirmed that convergence is the norm, but its nature depends on the species, location, organised crime group, and stage of the supply chain. Convergences can range from opportunistic and ad hoc, to sophisticated and sustained. For the latter, adopting an organised crime approach is essential to counter illegal wildlife trade and dismantle the criminal networks involved.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100196"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145268042","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":"Financial and economic crimes across disciplines: Perspectives from the Global South","authors":"Joy Malala,&nbsp;Nkechikwu Azinge-Egbiri,&nbsp;Folashade Adeyemo,&nbsp;Chukwuemeka Nwabuzor,&nbsp;Lovina Otudor,&nbsp;Louis de Koker","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100201","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100201","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100201"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145462987","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":"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":"2025-12-01","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}