NCJ Number
73854
Journal
Home Office Research Bulletin Issue: 10 Dated: (1980) Pages: 36-41
Date Published
1980
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Problems in measuring economic offenses in the United Kingdom are compounded by a division of duties among independent law enforcement bodies, use of nonstandard methods of enforcement, and lack of a single body having overall responsibility.
Abstract
The difficulty begins with defining economic crime and its perimeters. When, for example, does economic crime become property crime? Next is the confusion of several law enforcement bodies gathering information on economic crime, each of which has its own method of dealing with the offender. Some use enforcement notices, others issue formal cautions, others routinely impose fines. Only police cautions and police enforcement activities leading to criminal prosecution are recorded in the Home Office's criminal statistics. Furthermore, because many economic regulatory offenses are nonindictable, they lose their particular economic identity when dealt with by the police. In addition, police statistics cannot account for the law enforcement activity of bodies such as Customs and Excise, the Inland Revenue, and others. Non-police criminal statistics are contained in the official publications of some of these other government departments and agencies, but these do not permit a statistical overview of criminal activity since offenses may be double-counted or under-counted. Because the way in which criminal statistics are presented is crucial to public discussion of the crime problem and the formation of criminal policy, attempts must be made to coordinate the existing diversity of sources of law enforcement statistics. Thirteen references are included.