ECONOMIC CRIME: BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
| Published date | 01 January 1996 |
| Pages | 9-14 |
| Date | 01 January 1996 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024863 |
| Author | IAN O. ANGELL |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
COMMENT
ECONOMIC CRIME: BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Received (in revised form): 5th December, 1995
IAN O.
ANGELL
PROFESSOR
IAN O. ANGELL
HAS HELD THE CHAIR OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF
ECONOMICS SINCE 198G. ALTHOUGH BEST
KNOWN FOR HIS WORK ON COMPUTER
GRAPHICS FOR THE
LAST
TEN YEARS HE HAS
CONCENTRATED ON STRATEGIC
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND ON
ORGANISATIONAL AND NATIONAL IT
POLICIES. HE HAS ACTED AS A CONSULTANT
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS TO MANY NATIONAL AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND TO A
NUMBER OF GOVERNMENTS. HIS CURRENT
RESEARCH FOCUSES ON THE GLOBAL
CONSEQUENCES OF IT, AND PARTICULARLY
ON SECURITY ISSUES. HE MAY BE
CONTACTED AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF
ECONOMICS. DEPARTMENT OF
INFORMATION SYSTEMS, HOUGHTON
STREET, LONDON WC2.TEL. +44(0) 171
9557638, FAX. +44(0) 171 955 7385.
ABSTRACT
This
polemical essay
is an extended and
more coherent version
(what he would like
to have
said,
rather
than what he
actually
said) of the intervention made by the
author at the 13th International Sympo-
sium on Economic Crime, held at the
Guildhall,
Cambridge,
England on 13th
September, 1995. It is his reaction
against the moralising sentimentality of
the Western law
officers
(police, lawyers
and tax
collectors)
he saw
speaking
at the
symposium.
Why is it that law officers who speak
at conferences on organised crime
always don the mantle of Eliot Ness?
Why is it that their presentations
inevitably end up as morality tales?
Why do they picture themselves
among 'the Untouchables', as Saint
George against the dragon, as reason
against insanity, as order against
chaos,
as right against wrong, as
good against evil? These pious com-
mentators fail to see that their situa-
9
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