The search for crime money – debunking the myth: facts versus imagery
| Published date | 08 May 2009 |
| Date | 08 May 2009 |
| Pages | 97-100 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13685200910951875 |
| Author | Jackie Harvey |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
GUEST EDITORIAL
The search for crime
money – debunking the myth:
facts versus imagery
Jackie Harvey
Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper evolves from a seminar that look place in July 2008 aimed at
uncovering the issues facing agencies tackling criminal money management and money laundering
policy and compliance. The event brought representatives from financial firms and law enforcement
agencies together to debate issues with academics.
Design/methodology/approach – Thepaper rehearses the main argumentsarising fromthe seminar
underpinnedby appropriate literatureprior to introducingthe other papers includedin the special edition.
Findings – The objective is to draw attention to the importance of establishing evidence-based
building blocks of facts, rather than threats and imagery that should be used to inform policy makers.
Practical implications – Policy makers need to pay attention to the findings of objective empirical
research and use theses to inform policy making.
Originality/value – The special edition is of value to academics and policy makers, bringing
together, as it does, research that is taking place across Europe.
Keywords Crimes, Money laundering, Laws and legislation
Paper type Conceptual paper
The approach to legislating for money laundering has been focussed on providing
a widening arsenal of weapons for use by the law enforcement authorities, all the while
justified by the righteous belief that criminal financial activity is occurring on a scale
that is so vast as to threaten the functioning and integrity of the financial system.
Indeed, it would appear that the bigger and more threatening the estimate, reinforced
by the zealous assumption of its constant upward spiral (van Duyne et al., 2005), the
more likely it is to be adopted (van Duyne, 2003; Reuter and Truman, 2005; Levi and
Reuter, 2006; Harvey, 2005; Harvey and Lau, 2008). Indeed there is a certain perverse
logic in that smaller estimates would invalidate the presumption of threat. In essence,
we have produced the perfect win-win situation for the many public and private sector
agencies whose existence is justified by these underlying assumptions in what could be
viewed as an elaborate “hustle”, sheltered behind the symbolic imagery of anti-money
laundering apparatus.
Official justification for anti-money laundering rests on the hypothesis that
separating the criminal from the benefits of his lifestyle will reduce the attractiveness
of his chosen occupationand that the imposition of regulation increases both the costs of
laundering and the probability of detection and conviction. Such arguments continue to
be presenteddespite increasing evidencethat they do not hold in practice (Alldridge,2003;
van Duyne et al., 2005; Reuterand Truman, 2005; Harvey and Lau, 2008). This approach
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1368-5201.htm
The search for
crime money
97
Journal of Money Laundering Control
Vol. 12 No. 2, 2009
pp. 97-100
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/13685200910951875
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