Levi, Michael --- "Foreword: some reflections on the evolution of economic and financial crimes" [2015] ELECD 1375; in Rider, Barry (ed), "Research Handbook on International Financial Crime" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) xxviii

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Financial Crime

Editor(s): Rider, Barry

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783475780

Section Title: Foreword: some reflections on the evolution of economic and financial crimes

Author(s): Levi, Michael

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

Foreword: some reflections on the evolution of
economic and financial crimes
Michael Levi1



DEFINITIONS AND A TYPOLOGY OF FINANCIAL CRIME
HARMS
`Financial crime' is normally not a legal but rather an administratively functional
category and has been growing in use, especially in OECD countries, though in
continental Europe and parts of Africa, `economic crime' is more commonly used and
overlaps extensively.2 A lightly grounded paper by the IMF (2001: 3) defines it very
broadly beyond economic crime or crimes in the financial sector, prefiguring the
extension of money laundering offences to the proceeds of all crimes for financial gain:

Financial crime, which is a subset of financial abuse, can refer to any non-violent crime that
generally results in a financial loss, including financial fraud. It also includes a range of
illegal activities such as money laundering and tax evasion. Money laundering refers to
activities involving the processing of criminal proceeds to disguise their association with
criminal activities.

At the 11th UN Crime Congress, the UNODC (2005: 1) adopted a fairly protean view:

`[E]conomic and financial crime' refers broadly to any non-violent crime that results in a
financial loss. These crimes thus comprise a broad range of illegal activities, including fraud,
tax evasion and money-laundering. The category of `economic crime' is hard to define and its

1
Michael Levi, PhD, DSc (Econ.), Professor of Criminology, Cardiff University.
[e-mail].
2
The major developing country with a reputation for fraud, Nigeria, calls its central agency,
...