NCJ Number
186446
Journal
Journal of Financial Crime Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: August 2000 Pages: 21-31
Date Published
August 2000
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article examines the proceeds of crime response by national governments.
Abstract
Over the last 2 decades national governments have passed legislation aimed at ensuring that criminals do not profit from crime. This has been in response to the rise of organized crime and to the massive amounts of money being generated, in particular, by drug trafficking. This paper seeks to demonstrate that the response by national governments can be perceived as evolving through a series of different models, thus allowing a comparative approach among different jurisdictions. Each model is composed of elements from three factors: money-laundering legislation, confiscation legislation, and organizational structures and arrangements. The article divides proceeds of crime legislation and arrangements worldwide into Elementary, Developed, and Advanced Models and describes the major features of each. It also discusses a new attitude to revenue offenses, a greater role for intelligence services in proceeds of crime activities, a response to the growth of e-commerce, closer links between jurisdictions and more efficient disclosures of suspicious transactions between them, and a greater ability to reduce the effectiveness of bank secrecy laws. References