Journal of Economic Criminology最新文献

{"title":"Using data analytics to distinguish legitimate and illegitimate shell companies","authors":"Milind Tiwari ,&nbsp;Adrian Gepp ,&nbsp;Kuldeep Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100123","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Shell companies can be a legitimate entity but can also been used for illicit activities such as money laundering. Users of shell companies have included illegal arms dealers, drug cartels, terrorists and cyber-criminals, as well as legitimate businesses. To assist in distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate uses of shell companies, we develop a data-driven model to detect shell companies that are being used for money laundering. We use a hybrid approach combining graph analytics and supervised machine learning. The resulting detection models have an impressive classification accuracy ranging between 88.17 % and 97.85 %. We found no prior study that developed such models to detect illicit shell companies using publicly available information as done with our models. Beneficiaries of this work include government officials and compliance professionals, particularly accountants, tax officials and anti-corruption agencies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143136815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the impact of socioeconomic disparities on criminal behaviors in oil producing communities in Niger Delta Nigeria","authors":"Godwin Egbe","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the rise of social inequalities in oil-producing communities in Nigeria's Niger Delta, identifying factors that contribute to socioeconomic disparities. Over the last two decades, these communities have endured environmental degradation, youth violence, militancy, and conflict with transnational oil companies. The study uses relative deprivation and general strain theories to explain variances in the living standards of residents. Primary data gathered through surveys revealed that income and education levels are significant predictors of inequality and criminal behavior. The policy implications underline the importance of effective checks and balances in community development committees, with a focus on grassroots development and accountable administration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143136819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An opportunity lost? The declining role of authorised covert human intelligence sources in combating organised crime","authors":"Ian Stanier ,&nbsp;Jordan Nunan","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Combatting organised crime, requires Agencies to deploy a range of collection capabilities to identify community threats, to accurately select and prioritise organised crime targets and to inform operational decision-making. Central to this effort is the ability to identify, recruit and deploy Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS). It is therefore paradoxical that the United Kingdom’s CHIS authorisations have been in steep decline since the enactment of the bespoke <em>Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act</em> 2000 (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Scotland Act, 2000). This research seeks to critically discuss as to what are the key factors contributing to this decline. Consequently, this review suggests that the decline in CHIS authorisations are to be found in a complex configuration of factors. Two stand out as significant; i) the impact of resource reduction on CHIS operational capacity and capability, and ii) an emergence of a culture of fear and risk aversion as a constraining factor on CHIS recruitment and use.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143136818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The dark arts of crypto laundering and the nigerian financial ecosystem: Examining regulatory perspectives of virtual assets and virtual asset providers in mitigating money laundering risks in Nigeria","authors":"Oluwabunmi Adaramola","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100117","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100117","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The last five years have seen immense growth in the Nigerian financial services sphere, particularly with the introduction of innovative ways to make, trade and exchange money in a largely unregulated sphere. One of such developments is virtual assets which has opened up a lot of doors in the world of FinTech and attracted the attention of financial industry regulators. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial regulatory agencies seem to however waiver in their governance systems of virtual assets, oscillating between an implied soft ban through various circulars in 2021 on one hand and a desire to critically understand the operations of virtual assets within the ambit of the Securities and Exchange Commission rules in 2022. However, within this timeframe, various cryptocurrency trading platforms quickly found ways to illegally circumvent and allow users to continue trading, regardless of the implied ban, taking advantage of financial agencies' lackadaisical approach to regulating their activities. Current research therefore suggests that there is a continued operation of such exchange platforms outside regulatory boundaries where in May 2023, Patricia, a popular Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange platform, launched its own digital tokens. In response, the CBN released a guideline in December 2023 on the operations of bank accounts for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs), a first step towards regulating virtual assets in Nigeria. This paper therefore aims to critically assess the anatomy and footprint of cryptolaundering, particularly in Nigeria’s banking and finance sector, as well as current and future attempts at regulating the potential money laundering risks of virtual assets. Particularly, this paper aims to examine the potency of current regulatory perspectives and Nigeria’s emerging governance system for virtual assets and VASPs side by side with its current economic and social realities and the overall regulatory nature of Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143136822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is financial stress a facilitating factor in cartel formation?","authors":"Jesper Fredborg Huric-Larsen","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100126","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100126","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>It is well-known that failing to achieve key organizational goals may pressure managers to commit fraud, but can it be a facilitating factor in cartel formation as well? The purpose of this study is to understand if firms known to have been in a cartel were under financial stress in the period leading up to the cartel formation. A trend analysis is used to examine the performance of the firms before, during, and after the cartel period. The study uses accounting data on firms belonging to sanctioned cartels. In addition, the data is used to determine if firms can achieve joint profit maximization and what happens to firm performance after the cartel is broken down. The results support the proposition that financial stress can be a motivating factor for cartel formation. Moreover, the results show that several firms fall short of benefitting from cartel participation and that cartel breakdown often leads to a worse than initial outcome. The conclusion is that financial stress increases the chances of firms engaging in cartel activity. And, that structural break analyses can likely detect cartels using trends in the performance of firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143136825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using global security assemblages to combat transnational organized crime","authors":"Brian R. Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100134","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100134","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Traditional 20th century public responses to Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) were oftentimes singular, siloed, and exclusive; state entities and resources were used to detect, deter, and combat the issue. The expansion and emergence of new types of organized crime in the 21st century has made these traditional responses an ineffective and myopic policy choice. Now, contemporary 21st century approaches to combatting organized crime will increasingly rely upon assemblage thinking and the use of global security assemblages (GSAs), where public sector agencies collaborate with the private sector to address TOC. This approach will also require an innovative approach to understating GSAs through assemblage thinking and modifying the concept of capable guardians within routine activities theory.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143480675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The fatal flaw of glocal ‘solutions’ to Illicit Financial Flows","authors":"Sanaa Ahmed","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100116","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2024.100116","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rise in the volume of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) across the world is triggering calls from the Global South to mitigate the deleterious consequences of both IFFs and tax abuse on their economies. Using a Third World Approaches to International Law lens, this article analyses the politics of the current anti-money laundering counter-terrorism financing (AML-CTF) regime and its effects on the mitigation strategies currently in play. These include beneficial ownership registries, civil asset forfeiture regimes (including Unexplained Wealth Orders) and repatriation strategies. The paper argues that the problematic institutional politics of the global regulator Financial Action Task Force have a determinative effect on the purported ‘solutions’ to the problem of IFFs and, as such, can only <em>perpetuate</em> the tragedy of the broken AML system, not reform it nor deliver the putatively desired outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143136823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unveiling sentiments of the cullen commission: Exploring AML compliance and regulation through deep learning techniques","authors":"Mark E. Lokanan","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100138","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100138","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the role of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and compliance in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) in Canada. AML regulations establish guidelines for financial institutions to identify, prevent, and report suspicious activities. However, tensions often arise between AML compliance and regulation due to the challenges associated with implementing and adhering to AML regulations. This paper aims to investigate the sentiments expressed by individuals involved in AML compliance and regulation regarding the effectiveness of AML measures in the Canadian financial sector. The paper uses advanced deep learning (DL) methods like convolutional neural networks (CNN), recurrent neural networks with long short-term memory (RNN+LSTM), and pre-trained models like GloVe and BERT to explore emotions in the context of AML compliance and regulation. The findings indicate that DL models excel at accurately classifying sentiments from testimonies related to AML compliance and regulation. However, there are challenges in accurately capturing negative sentiments, which reflect the complexities and nuances associated with expressing criticisms about regulatory standards. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the interplay between rational decision-making in compliance and the inherent conflicts with regulation. This article also highlights how DL models can potentially enhance sentiment analysis in the AML enterprise, enabling analysts to make decisions and policies based on financial intelligence. Nevertheless, DL models are not always easy to comprehend. Further research is needed to enhance the understandability and scalability of DL models when analyzing different AML datasets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143510252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Economic inequality and the monetary reward in a robbery","authors":"Stewart J. D'Alessio ,&nbsp;Lisa Stolzenberg ,&nbsp;Jamie L. Flexon","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100139","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100139","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The relationship between economic inequality and violent crime is usually equated with rational choice or strain theory, although adjudicating between these two distinct perspectives is exceedingly burdensome because their respective predictions are analogous. Multilevel data for 66 cities located across the U.S. are analyzed to evaluate whether economic inequality influences the financial reward (cash/property) derived from a robbery. While rational choice theory proffers that economic inequality increases the monetary reward in a robbery because of the greater availability of lucrative targets to victimize, strain theory makes no such prediction. Results cast doubt on rational choice theory because economic inequality fails to predict the financial reward acquired in a robbery. However, an offender’s monetary reward in cities plagued by economic inequality is observed to be more substantive when a firearm is employed during the commission of a robbery. This latter finding suggests that robbers may be employing firearms in cities plagued by economic inequality to victimize potentially wealthy targets who are likely better protected.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143487387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Afraid of the unknown: Crypto literacy and fear of online fraud","authors":"Timothy A. Engle ,&nbsp;Cooper A. Maher ,&nbsp;Michael Jones","doi":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100135","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeconc.2025.100135","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The proliferation of cryptocurrency throughout society has led to widespread usage within criminal offending. Despite this, limited research has investigated fear of cryptocurrency-based victimization, or the role that financial or cryptocurrency literacy play in influencing such fears. This study examines the influence in which financial and cryptocurrency literacy plays in both personal and altruistic fear of financial and cryptoeconomic crimes. Using a sample of college undergraduates (n = 433), and employing a validated scale of cryptocurrency literacy, results indicate that cryptocurrency literacy is not significantly associated with all modalities of fear of crime investigated, with the exception of altruistic fear of non-cryptocurrency financial crimes. Conversely, general financial literacy was negatively associated with personal fear of both financial crimes and non- cryptoeconomic financial crimes. Findings are discussed in light of research and policy implication as well as limitations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100775,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Criminology","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143465364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}