A private affair? Implications of systems of corporate justice for internal economic and financial crime within organisations

• In Event: EUROC 8 Organisational Cultures and Compliance

Abstract

As a result of multiple factors such as an overburdened criminal justice system, a lack of fit between criminal justice solutions and commercial interests, and the existence of a professionalised corporate investigations market, the control of internal economic and financial crime is in many countries for an important part a private affair. ‘Corporate investigators’ may provide investigative services in cases when internal and self-investigations are necessary, and may provide or be of assistance with private solutions for these matters (‘corporate justice’). The emphasis on private investigations and -solutions with regard to internal economic and financial (or corporate) crime has certain implications. There are notable potential benefits to organisations, the criminal justice system, society and the persons under investigation. These include a higher level of efficiency, lower costs for society, the promotion of the self-cleaning ability of organisations and the fact that an investigated person will not receive a criminal record. However, this semi-autonomous social field of crime control may also have notable negative implications. The fact that corporate investigations and settlements make up a system of corporate justice, may for example mean that access is limited to the organisations that have the funds to make use of them. In addition, concerns can be raised about scarcity of criminal justice involvement in the control of internal economic and financial (or corporate) crime, the limited external (democratic) oversight over corporate investigations and the position of individuals who are implicated by corporate investigations. This presentation examines the above and other implications of private efforts by organisations in response to internal economic and financial (or corporate) crime, based on empirical qualitative studies in the Netherlands.

Author

• Clarissa Meerts, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam