Analysis of the Article by Micheal Levi Public and Private Policing of Financial Crimes - Literature review Example

Literature Review Literature Review The article by Micheal Levi, “Public and Private Policing of Financial Crimes: The struggle for Coordination” provides an analysis of the evolved financial crimes and their control by public and private bodies in UK, North America, and Australasia. The author, Levi, conducted interviews of police officials and other operational heads giving input on the investigation carried out in these frauds. It is seen that there is a rising volume of frauds, which constitutes of white-collar crime and it is difficult to have control structures that can deal with them effectively. However, the author has the view that in most of the countries, only public bodies, police and government are looked upon for assessing the fraud control but in UK, many private companies have come forward, working together through intelligence bodies and investigative resources to assess the impact of such fraudulent activities. Most of the research findings indicate that fraud, corruption, and money laundering that harm the society need to be worked upon through community cooperation. These fraudulent criminal activities have increased cases of family violence as well as child offenders. In this regard, forces like payment card systems have formed an alliance with police and government agencies so that exploiters are exposed and traced who use credit and debit cards for their benefit. The author further gives the example of The Fraud Review, suggesting the same, that both public and private bodies are required to counter attack fraud by a multi-agency approach. Even though, sometimes it is difficult to disperse sensitive information to private bodies regarding crime but social justice can only be achieved if public policing along with regulatory bodies work collaborate with private investigative Units (Levi, 2010). Another article by Micheal Levi “Organized fraud and organizing frauds” examines the same situation by highlighting the presence of crime network. This concept of crime network demonstrates that there is growing collaboration between offenders who are acting through “organized crime” growing their business and criminal activities through global network. The author provides examination of these contingent relationships of offenders that work through a setting forming organized structures that identify means which increase opportunities of crimes. According to the author, criminals form these organized frameworks take part in criminal activities finding their co-offenders working in inter-state, regulatory structures and justice systems who are willing to provide help in committing fraud. Hence, they are exploited and offenses are carried out through a pattern that involves manipulation of resources. They defuse the law enforcement, converting goods into cash, and locating it to persons who can conceal their identity. Thus, Levis provides implications of such organized crime and fraudulent activities, having the view that it is much easier that coalitions are made that focus on regulatory control rather than on its elimination to be in command of the situation (Micheal, 2008). Levi, in his article, “Measuring the impact of fraud in the UK: a conceptual and Empirical journey” has provided information on data collection processes and ideologies that have control over crime and the strategies that are required to have significant amount of data regarding crime rates. The author provides reasoning that there are two approaches to study data collection, first looking at the statistics on what is collected and information that is absent. The second approach is to critically analyze all the data of the behavior of the offenders, categorizing them on their importance political importance, frequency of their offensive behavior and other factors that may have an impact on data. Most of data coming from UK confirms that the deviant behaviors of individuals are viewed differently by people and the resources that investigate these attributes aim at preventing crime. However, it is noticed by the author that media is mostly covering these activities and they mostly have all the evidences required for comprehensive data recording. The author further provided brief on types of frauds and different methodologies adopted by criminals and insurances associated with it. He highlights the importance of Insurance for frauds, saying that the public sector bears the cost of insurance that compensates the loss in the form of reduced dividends inclusive of psychiatric treatments (Levi & Burrows, 2007). The article by Doig and Levi, “A case of arrested development: Delivering the UK National Fraud Strategy within competing policing policy priorities” provides an examination of the government of UK’s role in identifying fraud strategy with the main focus on police and fraud investigation unit that allocates resources bearing in mind other priorities of police in mind. The author has the view that in Fraud Review, information relating to fraud was incomplete so it is necessary to understand an effective fraud strategy that marks crime control on priority basis. Hence, according to the author, this is needed to be carried out by measuring it using NFA fraud Indicator that gives statistical information on their occurrences. Budget control and determining targets of controlling crime are also essential part of crime control approaches (Doig & Micheal, 2013). The article by Levi, “Hitting the Suit Spot” provides a study on this perceived social concept that relates prosecution of individuals belonging to elite class, being free of charge as compared to the individuals of lower class. This questions the equality in criminal justice system to relate every individual as per his offensive behavior. The author provides descriptive statistics on sentencing suggesting that the data is incomplete. The author states that the fraud sentencing is carried out in biasness with leniency as a white collar crime as those people who are associated with it are mostly powerful and rich people. Moreover, the author has further provided implications of white collar offenders on notions like stigma and social trauma stating that there are shaming such individuals may be seen as an effective crime control. Media may also play a role in condemning and highlighting these acts though, they may lose interest after some time. The author concludes by saying that most of the offenders of white collar crimes feel that they should get a light sentence as fraudster are not considered a threat to a life. However, the evil practices of fraudulent activities still need to be regarded as one of the most important and punishable crimes today (Levi, 2010). Schuchter along with Michael Levi have discussed the “Fraud Triangle”, providing details of developmental cornerstones of this terminology with their theoretical and practical implication. These implications relate to a concrete application on three important components which are motivation, opportunity and rationalization. The authors further carried out an empirical study guided by some preventative measures and tools to find fraudulent activities in 13 companies in Austria and Switzerland and found out that after using these measures, they were somewhat reduced and the risks involving corporate culture were identified. Opportunity plays a crucial role in this case but if there are pressures building up in the corporate environment they become salient and rationalizations are drawn through an “inner voice” till the time the fraud takes place. All these constitute the “Fraud Triangle”, and it is influenced by the organizational culture pertaining in the companies (Schuchter & Levi, 2013). Doig and Levi in the article, “Inter-agency work and the UK public sector investigation of fraud, 1996-2006: joined up rhetoric and disjointed reality” focus on joint efforts on the part of policy makers, regulators of public service and private bodies to investigate fraudulent activities taking place. They are teamed up into “joined up working” where investigation is carried out at the departmental levels rather than by police to address these problems. In this regard, in UK public sector reforms are promoted for working proactively by National Audit Office and the government as they are do not just achieve organizational objectives but also change organizational cultures. In order to make changes public-public and public-private partnerships are needed to be reviewed that can provide positive implication in the society.  UK government Fraud Review and the National Fraud Strategic Authority can play a vital role in this regard (Doiga & Levi, 2009). List of References Doiga, A. & Levi, M., 2009. Inter-agency work and the UK public sector investigation of fraud, 1996–2006: joined-up rhetoric and disjointed reality. Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, 19(3), pp.199-215. Doig, A. & Micheal, L., 2013. A case of arrested development: Delivering the UK National Fraud Strategy within competing policing policy priorities. Public Money and Management, 33(2), pp.145-52. Levi, M., 2010. Hitting the suite spot: sentencing frauds. Journal of Financial Crime, 17(1), pp.116-32. Levi, M., 2010. Public and Private Policing of Financial Crimes: the Struggle for Co-ordination. Journal of Criminal Justice and Security, 1(4), pp.343-54. Levi, M. & Burrows, J., 2007. Measuring the impact of fraud in the UK: a conceptual and empirical journey. British Journal of Criminology, 48(3), pp.293-318. Micheal, L., 2008. Organized fraud and organizing frauds:Unpacking research on networks and organization. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 8(4), pp.389–419. Schuchter, A. & Levi, M., 2013. The fraud triangle revisited. Security Journal , 2(13), pp.1-24. Read More