Methods to prevent economic crime
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention's initiative on research into economic crime 1998—2002. English summary of Brå report 2003:1
Questions of crime prevention tend usually however to be directed at traditional offences, such as theft, and at specific problem areas, such as youth crime, that are also dominated by traditional forms of crime. The current report is unusual in the sense that it focuses on another type of crime altogether, namely white-collar crime or economic crime, which is the term commonly used in Sweden.
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- © Brottsförebyggande rådet 2004
- urn:nbn:se:bra-218
About the study
This report builds on work that the Council was commissioned by the Government to undertake in 2002 (Brå 2003:1). The Swedish National Audit Office (Riksrevisionsverket) had published a report to the Government noting a number of deficiencies at one of the country’s more important crime prevention agencies (RRV 2001:29). These deficiencies related inter alia to a lack of clarity as to what the agency covered in the area of prevention work and to the absence of explicit methods for how such work should be conducted.
The National Council for Crime Prevention was therefore commissioned to investigate the need to prevent economic crime and to formulate suitable methods for use by anti-crime agencies. It is important to examine the effects that different preventive measures have on crime. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the effectiveness of crime prevention measures is poor. This lack of knowledge should not however lead to passivity. Amongst other things, knowledge on the effects of crime prevention measures has to be developed. The hope is that this report will serve as an important source of inspiration in the area of economic crime prevention work.
Even though the report has been produced in a Swedish context, it is the hope of the National Council for Crime Prevention that it may inspire other countries to increase their crime preventive efforts in the area of economic crime and that we may encourage and develop the international exchange of ideas and experiences as a means of moving towards our common goal, that of reducing crime.