Myths About Economic Crime (From Ekonomisk Brottslighet, P 71-82, 1979, Leif Johansson and Dan Magnusson, eds. - See NCJ-79655)

• NCJ Number: 79658
• Author(s): L Persson
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: Brottsforebyggande Radet
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Country: Sweden
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

The scarcity of knowledge about economic crime among Swedish law enforcement authorities and criminologists is the result of the few resources directed at researching and preventing this type of crime. In the place of knwledge, authorities base their policies and strategies on unproven assumptions.

Abstract

Examples of the few data that have been collected on economic crime in the last three decades include the tax authorities' files on tax evasion and underpayment that were compiled during the 1960's when revisions to the tax codes made enforcement more stringent. The campaign to investigate fraud and underpayment among doctors produced some of the most comprehensive data in this area. Other data sources include Bjorkman's study of Swedish credit practices, Vogel's survey of taxpayers' reporting practices, and the Swedish National Bank's study of currency flows. However, not nearly enough raw data have been assembled to, for instance, determine what types of economic crimes are occurring, the amounts of illegal profits being realized, how many offenders are involved, etc. In the face of inadequate data, criminologists and law enforcement authorities are basing their approaches on a number of stereotypes about white-collar crime and the way white-collar criminals operate. The three myths reviewed here could logically be countered, if not disproved. These include the assumptions that white-collar crime is nearly always financed with legally acquired money; profits from economic criminal activity are invested in nonlegitimate operations (available data show that they are equally as likely to go into personal uses); and if economic crime were brought under total control, the government would collect a huge amount of additional tax revenues. The first two of these myths are contradictory, and the third is based on the assumption that businesses would not change their operations, and thus their profits, if they were brought under control. No references are cited.